Goal Smashed, Too Busy to Notice

There is a terrible irony in what I do. Part of how I keep a roof over my head and food in my mouth is teaching other leaders and business people how to be successful. Writing that sentence feels hilarious, in fact. I wouldn’t say it’s completely imposter syndrome, but it is comical because technically I have no idea how to do that. 

I’d say it’s not imposter syndrome and I don’t know how to do that because, well, no one knows how specifically to get successful outcomes. As a matter of fact, this is part of what I end up teaching. 

Allegedly, I’m successful in some ways and I’m confident that I could articulate the most high performance way to move through a business, athletic, or other kind of venture to be successful at it. However, I’m smart enough to realize that the very best anyone can do is simply increase the likelihood of success. The best way to increase the likelihood of success? 

Radical focus on the process. 

I was reminded of this recently. I wrote some major and minor objectives on my blackboard in my office at the beginning of quarantine. I hadn’t gone in there due to some unforeseen circumstances until yesterday. One of the items on my list was a “News Feature”. This was a goal to get a newspaper to write an article on our creative efforts during the pandemic as a guerilla marketing tactic that could potentially save the business. 

I can say two important things here. Firstly, I’ve never seen an effort out of the team or myself quite like this in my entire life. And, second, I have no idea how to do PR or get a damn newspaper article written about us. In all honesty, I’d put our execution of the process at this time up against any company in the fitness world bar none. Also, I wrote a pitch to every newspaper editor in Los Angeles, didn’t hear back, and did nothing else to specifically accomplish this goal. 

Weeks later this article made the front page of Yahoo! featuring DEUCE’s effort to effectively maneuver COVID-19. The publication of this article exceeded any intention of my original goal exponentially and I can’t say I was able to directly control this resoundingly positive outcome. I can say we were too busy mastering what was in our control to realize we were accomplishing all of our goals, however. 

Set the big goal. Get busy in the process so you can accidentally accomplish your biggest goals. 

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach

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