GOAL Is a 4-Letter Word

We live in a society driven by goals, whether in sports, school or business; but I had my perspective on goals changed a few years ago by my uncle. He told me not to use the word GOAL because goals, by their nature, can be self-limiting. If you’re trying to achieve the goal, you may deprive yourself of achieving more. In other words, if we just do our best, every time, we’ll achieve exactly what we’re capable of. On the surface that sounds plausible, but does it work in the real world?

When are goals good?

When you’re driving down the road you need to know the speed limit, as that’s the maximum allowable speed for that particular road. Did you know that many roads also have a minimum allowable speed? If you drive 20 mph on the interstate (when there’s no traffic slowing you down) you can get a ticket for driving too slow. Your car is capable of much more that any legal speed limit, but you have to hold it back to the target speed (or something close to it ;-).

Minimum goals, or targets, have their place as well. Besides not driving too slow to be a danger to others, it’s OK to have a minimum target when it comes to your sales and/or income. We all have to cover our expenses, put a roof over our heads, feed our families, etc. Many theme park rides have signs “you must be this tall to go on this ride,” and that’s for your safety. So, there are times when a minimum is good.

Goals don’t all have to be monetary

Many of you have heard me say that I’m trying to become fluent in Spanish. That is, fluent enough to present in Mexico, in Spanish, next year. I’ve set that goal because it’s hard. I’ve set that goal because I need the incentive to study, every day. I’ve told you all about it to make myself accountable for doing it.

When are goals bad?

For many people goals can act as maximums. You work to achieve that number, whether it’s a dollar amount or number of events/jobs, rather than doing what you’re capable of. When I was VP of Sales at The Knot, all of my reps had targets, numbers that we gave them. It wasn’t what they were capable of, but it was a representation of the bigger number the company had set, and how that trickled down to their market. The best reps paid only cursory attention to that number. They went about selling as much as they could, every day. That’s the way I was as a salesperson. I just did the best I could, every day. When the smoke cleared at the end of the sales cycle, whatever the number was, it was the best I could do.

Should you set goals?

If you need to set a number, set it high. Not so high there’s no path to achieve it, but not so low that it’s too easy and then you coast. I’ve seen that time and again where a salesperson or business owner hits their number and then slows down. That’s like a runner getting out in front and then coasting to the finish. Can you imagine a competitive racer beating a record and then taking their foot off the gas until the finish? Of course not. They want to do the best they can and raise the bar even higher.

A philosophy to live by