Big Goals Are Overrated

I’ve decided that setting BIG GOALS is over-rated!

I’ve had BIG GOALS in my life…remember BHAGS (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)? Many of them were never achieved, though I suppose there is still time.  One BIG GOAL I had was to write a book on leadership.  I carried that goal for over a decade, starting several times, never finishing.  I experienced personally the old adage “everyone wants to be a writer, but no one wants to do the work of writing!”  Something else was always more important, and the book did not get written…until I re-imagined the process!

Writing small articles got me back on track...a simple paragraph, simple ideas, one idea at a time.  I wasn’t writing a book, but rather exploring and researching ideas, putting together thoughts useful in my daily work.  Eventually, I had pages, a lot of pages to edit and build into a book. Several years later, I have my book, just released, called “Owning the Room”, not because of BIG GOALS, but because of a cumulation of many small achievements.

Like the book, the real progress in my life has not come from setting big goals!  Rather, it has come from the small wins, the incremental changes and accomplishments, and the daily completion of small tasks that build success over time. 

Perhaps we need to tame our BIG GOALS, and turn them into small ones that engage us, and create the daily energy for more and better.