"GOALS." I hate that term, and unjustifiably, the business world that uses it at EVERY meeting, too many checklists, too many hoops for my taste. Somehow, I'm not smart enough to get done what I need, so I must set milestones in order to assure my tiny little brain that he's making progress.
At work a couple days ago, we had a big meeting that addressed "core values" and "BHAG's" (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). The idea behind a BHAG is you set a ridiculously lofty goal and THEN decide how to get there. It's like running a 4:30 mile when your PR is a 5:15. You can either set up small increments and improve each time (5:00 to 4:45 to 4:35 and so on). Or you can set a super high goal (say 4:15) and go from there. The idea is that the former method will get you down to a 4:35, and the latter will utilize your full potential and get you to a 4:25 or even the 4:15.
I.E. the human mind/body is always more capable than people realize.
Being a realist in the professional world, I feel the R&D BHAGs were overly unreasonable; I'm being asked to run a 3:00 mile, something no single human has ever done. My mentor agreed.
However, I must admit that no one proves me wrong better or more frequently than moi-meme. As I mentioned in a previous post, I've spent the whole summer trying to regain the strength and speed I lost last winter. I haven't touched a 225 lb barbell since early 2005 (I'll confess, my statement before was a guess, a generous one even), and I continue to struggle with 200 lb barbells time to time. Today, amongst a significant amount of personal frustration, I ignored yesterday's self-council and grabbed the 225. With no spotter, I hit a set of five, four, and four reps.
Either my anger has made me powerful or the irony Gods just wanted me to feel stupid. They do that a lot these days.
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