It’s almost April, and my guess is that whatever goals you had for 2022 are mostly forgotten.

Why? Is it because your goals were useless, or you are a sloth? I highly doubt it. You are not alone in the “undone.” Research scientists tell us that only 8% of people fulfill those New Year ambitions. What about the other 92% of us? What goes wrong from the “hope it happens” starting gate to April’s utter failure to launch?

Could it be that our heart’s true desires level our lofty goals?

We often fashion our goals around social norms, company expectations, family obligations, etc. What is needed is a heart’s passion, a genuine interest, an internal value proposition – we have to want it for more than a checkmark. Our lives were made for meaning, and without the human sense that there is a purpose to what we do, our plans can be quite easily thwarted.

Why Goals are Important Even if We Miss The Mark

Goals help us identify the internal desires that engage our minds, imaginations, and finally, our feet! Without goals or ambitions – some defined outcome, we have no measure for ourselves. And, while meandering casually in the woods or along a roaring seashore can center your thoughts, after too long, you might get lost!

Goals are the red markers tied or painted along the tree trunks as we pass by. We know we are on the right track because we intentionally positioned them to alert us to our progress.

Where We Go Wrong

Goals take a wrong turn when they become the expression of someone else’s success. Who wants to follow the path to a chest of gold that belongs to another – only to find we spent countless hours and suffered through many obstacles to reach something we can never possess?

So our next four-week visit is with goals often referencing Mark Murphy’s, “Hard Goals.”

While brushing up on his work, I came across a recent article by Murphy in Forbes magazine entitled “How to Avoid Taking A Job Where You Don’t Fit the Company’s Culture.”  Murphy, several years after the Hard Goals publication, continues to build on the premise that we build success by knowing who we are, what we really want, and where we want to land.

Our journey through the HARD goals model will help you consider for yourself “your road less traveled” and what you are willing to do, what price you are ready to pay, to bushwhack the obstacles, and achieve what makes sense to you as worthwhile and satisfying.

Next week we’ll begin with the foundation you don’t want to miss.