Courageous Goals
As you shake off the residue of last year, yawn, stretch and prepare for the marathon of 2023, it’s time to ready yourself for goal setting.
Whether setting personal or professional goals, this time of the year typically brings thoughts of starting fresh, and creating amazing outcomes for ourselves, our teams, and our organizations.
I love this time of year because we get to create the epic future and results we want! And it all starts with goals.
Goals. Goals. Goals.
SMART Goals?? Nope.
COURAGEOUS Goals!!
A little while ago, I wrote about the F word: FEAR! (click here to access) Fear can stop us in our tracks from doing so many things. But the number one, most insidious thing that FEAR does to us? It stops us from dreaming BIG! And we can’t do epic sh*t without a big dream.
Fear is powerful, but it presents us with an amazing opportunity to be courageous. Who doesn’t want to feel the power of courage? Well, you can’t do it without a healthy dose of FEAR. Courage is simply fear in action.
Here’s my example. I was leading a major system migration effort. My team and I had all the basic goals of completing the migration on time and on budget with no negative impact to the business.
We weren’t the first business to migrate and there were constant complaints about how prior migrations had negatively impacted operations and service delivery. Quietly – in the back of my mind – I thought, “What if we dared to improve service delivery with our migration? What if we set our sights on taking our performance metrics to the next level?” I didn’t say it aloud for several days because I feared making the commitment and then failing.
But I couldn’t shake the thought: if we had the opportunity to rethink everything, why not rethink things for the better and not just the status quo? What if our goals were not only SMART but COURAGEOUS? What if they were Specific, Measurable, AMAZING, Realistic, and Timely!
We set the bar high, and the team achieved it.
Was I afraid to set a lofty goal like that? Hell yeah. But I did it anyway. Why? Because it’s possible to experience fear AND keep moving forward through courage. I was afraid of failure, but the team had the capability to do what was possible to achieve success. Was it hard? Yes. Impossible? No.
Courageous goals are SMART goals that take us out of our comfort zone and push us into next level performance.
????FEAR tells us: “Let’s keep it status quo!”
????COURAGE tells us: “The status quo is a springboard to better!”
????FEAR says: “What if we fail?”
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????COURAGE says: “What do we need to succeed?”
????FEAR tells us: “Don’t bite off more than you can chew!”
????COURAGE tells us: “Let’s figure out how to chew a bigger bite!”
How do you build Courageous Goals?
Now, I’m not na?ve. Sometimes the answer to step 4 includes things that are completely out of our control. When this happens, don’t settle for “It can’t be done.” Instead, ask yourself and those you are dependent upon, “What can be done?”
Even if you modify the AMAZING goal to be just a little less AMAZING, you’ll still elevate your performance beyond what you achieved if you never asked the questions.
In the coming weeks, when you’re setting goals for yourself, your organization, or with your team, write down the goal, then ask, “How do I/we elevate this to an amazing goal?”
Then, I want you to write down both goals – the BASIC goal and the COURAGEOUS goal – somewhere you can find it a year from now. (Stick it in your phone. On your calendar. Somewhere you’ll see it.) In a year, we’ll look at just how much you achieved!
Remember…
BASIC Leaders set obvious goals and play it safe.
BOLD Leaders set the bar high and stretch themselves and their teams.
BADA$$ Leaders dream big, set the bar at AMAZING, identify the fear, then step into their courage to do what it takes to get it done.
BE AUTHENTIC.
CHOOSE BOLDLY.
MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
-Tracy