Goal achievement is simple. Not easy, but simple. Sometimes painfully simple.
Not long ago I spoke for a group of youth volleyball players. I don’t do a lot of these engagements but I LOVE them…especially when the athletes are there to learn and genuinely want to get better.
I was kicking off their year and they were going to be doing season-long goal setting afterwards.
ALL of them want to have excellent seasons, both individually AND as a team.
If there's one thing I've learned about Outperformers, they find a way to fall in love with the process of becoming great.
Not being great (outcome); becoming great (process). I explained the following mentality:
Want to be great in a season?
A season is nothing more than a collection of games, and you cannot be excellent in a season without being consistently excellent in your games.
Your games are nothing more a collection of practices, and you cannot be excellent in games without being consistently excellent in your practices.
Your practices are nothing more than a collection of skills and drills, and you cannot be consistently excellent in practices without being consistently excellent in your skills and drills.
Want to be excellent in a season? Focus on being consistently excellent in each, and every, skill and drill you do.
The consistent excellence comes from the attitude and effort you bring (I recorded a podcast on this very topic, by the way), which is always 100% controllable.
This can be applied to anything:
You've probably already set 2020 business goals, which is a collection of quarters / months, which is a collection of days, which is a collection of your daily needle-moving activities. Business goals are built on consistent excellence in your activities.
You may have a lofty fitness goal, which is a collection of benchmarks, which is a collection of days, which is a collection of workouts. Fitness goals are built on consistent excellence in workouts.
I'm finishing my next book on Leadership, which is nothing more than a collection of chapters, which is a collection of pages, which is a collection of daily writing and research. Books are built on consistent excellence in writing and research.
In saying this, are you going to be 100% excellent every single day of your life? No. I won't be, either. You'll have days that you aren't as engaged, workouts that are skipped or cut short, and writing that is so bad you won't even let your dog read it 🙂
These things, in isolation, mean very little. But it's the slight edge of stacking up consistent excellence over time that make or break our lofty goals and worthwhile ambitions.
If you'd like training on this, please check out Daily Execution for Extraordinary Results. It's one of my most popular goal achievement programs in the new year.
