Are your goals ambitious or lazy?

I believe and fervently defend that to achieve our goals, both in personal and professional life, we need to learn to set goals.I know that what I am talking about may seem simple, however, many people think that setting a goal is just writing what you want to achieve on a paper and ready, it is done, but do not suspect that it is a more complex process.

For example, in the work environment, when we draw a goal for the team, which must be fulfilled until a certain period, we need to discover and map what paths we will use to achieve it. And for this, we have to know the degree of difficulty and if we 'NExt to the team ' POSSESS the tools necessary to put theory into practice.

However, for me, the problem is precisely when we reach the goals too easily or too quickly. You must be wondering: but this is not something positive? Not always. In some cases, you can demonstrate the commitment of employees to reach the expected result, but in others, having reached the goal with such agility can mean that it was a lazy goal in the face of the potential of the team.

A goal that I consider lazy is one that we have practically 90% for sure that we will achieve, no matter the way or the tools, but we insist on defining so that we can give a check‘ at the end of the year and say that it was fulfilled. This behavior should no longer be adopted by companies, because it passes that false impression of challenge fulfilled, when in fact, there was no challenge.

The importance of having clear and ambitious goals is not a new subject. From 1979 to 1989, Harvard University asked its graduates: Did you set clear and written goals for your future? Did you set the plans to achieve them? Only 3% of the graduates had clear, written goals and action plans; 13% had goals, but they did not have them in writing and neither had action plans to achieve them. The other 84% had no specific goals, except to finish the school year and enjoy the summer.

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the same people again. They found that the 3% who had clearly defined goals and plans in writing earned, on average, ten times more than the other 97% together! That is, it only shows the importance of what I am talking about, and that ambitious goals can make a difference in the results we hope to achieve.

This is a concept incorporated in a management that adopts the OKRs (Key Objectives and Key Results) - because it helps you avoid the goals that I consider lazy and impose more ambitious goals. Of course I am not saying to put things that are impossible to be fulfilled, but from the moment we rise the level, we start to explore different skills.

OKRs will greatly assist in this process, because when working with shorter cycles, usually three months, make it possible to realize the eventual errors that may arise in the strategy execution plan. In this way, it is feasible to recalculate the route, always remembering to work for results, with focus and clarity to meet the goal in the time previously established.

As Steven Kotler says, some goals are impossible, but others are impossible until someone reaches them!