Shooting Without Goals

It’s the championship game of the NBA season. Two teams have worked hard to reach the final game. They warm up and go to their respective locker rooms for final pre-game information and motivation.

The coaches are doing their best to get their teams in the right mindset for victory. The coach of the underdog team is working extra hard to ensure his players know what is at stake for them. He reminds his players about how they have overcome adversity all season long and how he feels that they will not want to settle for second best tonight. Finally, in his most enthusiastic vent yet, he rallies them with the thought that they deserve the win and challenges the players to go out and get that world championship!

The players leave the locker room highly motivated! They virtually tear the doors off as they charge back onto the court. As they grab basketballs and begin to approach their goal for final warm-up shots, they are stopped in their tracks. They cannot believe their eyes! They look to the sidelines and yell to the coach that someone has taken down the basketball goals while they were in the locker room. How can they play a game without a basket to shoot at?

A puzzling situation at best. Now, think with me: “How can you win in the game of life and business if you do not have goals?” Do you have written, well-defined goals so that you know where you are going? If not, how do you know where you are? How will you ever know if you win or fall short in your efforts?  

Goals are important. They make us take action. They make work and life more fun. They allow us to experience a sense of accomplishment and stretch us toward higher achievement. Goals also give us a needed sense of purpose and, as baseball great Yogi Berra proclaimed, “If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.”

If you have not made time to put your goals on paper, you need to do so. If you have not set aside time to clearly decide what you want and need to do professionally and personally, you should stop what you are doing and establish goals for those purposes.

You cannot play a game of basketball without goals to shoot at, and you cannot effectively play in the game of life and business without a list of goals either.

• Make a decision to have goals.
• Share them with others.
• Look at them daily and see the difference they will make.

As noted author, speaker and trainer Paul Myer said, “No one ever accomplished anything of consequence without a goal. Goal setting is the strongest human force for self-motivation.”

Goals do make a difference. Play with them and win yourself a championship!