How to Achieve Ridiculous Goals
By Christine OKelly | November 30, 2007
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Soon after being hired as an Operation Manager for an internet start-up company, I took a risk that could have gotten me fired, but instead elevated me to near rock star status. I applied the same formula many more times at this company which resulted in a kinship with the CEO and founding management team, access to lots more critical information, several thousand dollars in bonuses, company perks, a promotion, a higher salary, and more stock options.
My intention with this piece is to deconstruct the method and show you how to get the same types of results.
This is not a solution for the faint of heart or those who are adverse to challenges. This is a way, based on my own experiences, for the entrepreneur who is full of passion and willing to do anything to succeed, to GET THERE.
Let me start by saying that when I took the above mentioned job, I had no experience as an operations manager and wondered if I could actually do the job I’d been hired for. Walking in, I had a healthy amount of confidence, but not a lot of experience in this particular area.
Lesson Learned #1: Don’t Be Wimpy When Setting Goals
Most of us know that we are supposed to set goals and some of us do. But are you setting goals that will really help you achieve your true potential? Are you selling yourself short by creating goals that are too conservative?
Back to the example, after I was hired I learned that the department was in major trouble and its largest challenge was an 80,000 email backlog that had been building up for more than a year. Several other people who had filled my new position before me had tried to tackle the problem and failed. As a result, they had either been fired or quit. Further, no one really thought it was possible to get these emails under control. I also found out the CEO had become so frustrated by the department’s failures that he threatened to come in an fire every single person in the department (he had done this before with the software engineering team so this was a real threat!)
Without any particular plan of action, I took a risk and told my boss, “no problem. I’ll have this entire backlog cleared in 3 weeks.” Was I worried? You bet.
I had no idea how I would do this, but I figured if humans had the capability to put a rover on Mars and launch satellites into space, then there must be some way to clear out 80,000 emails in 3 weeks. If it is humanly possible, then it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of figuring out a way to do it.
Take Away: Take risks when goal setting. When faced with a challenge, it is essential that you set your goals based on the ultimate goal of the challenge – not what you currently think you can accomplish.
I am convinced, based on some of my experiences, that the size of the goal is almost irrelevant. Whether you set a goal to do $100,000 a year in business or $1 million in business, you are capable of achieving that goal you set if you adamantly follow some certain action processes.
Is it humanly possible to make $1 million in a year? Of course. So why wouldn’t you be able to do it? If someone can, you certainly can too. It’s just a matter of figuring out a way to do it.
I have learned a little secret about people who are successful in business. They regularly take on challenges with confidence, even if they aren’t certain about how the challenge will be carried out. The difference between those who are successful and those who are not is that the successful people will tell you that they will meet the goal while others will not commit to the goal and only “hope” that they’ll achieve it.
Lesson Learned #2: Create Negative Consequences for Failure
This is where things get a little uncomfortable. By setting private stretch goals for yourself with no negative repercussions if you fail, it becomes easy to fail. In my situation, the risk of publicly setting this kind of goal walking into the company was either getting fired or being known as a failure for the remainder of my employment. Both were unacceptable in my mind.
As a self employed person with no “boss” to be accountable to, it can be very tempting to continue playing it safe for the sake of remaining comfortable. We’ve got to create negative consequences for failing at our goals. This is easier said than done. For example, would you be willing to publicly state some very lofty goals on your blog and risk losing your reader’s respect if you fail?
Take Away: Take action to publicly hold yourself accountable to someone else for achieving your goals. Don’t choose a family member or someone who will forgive you if you fail. This might take the form of setting goals for a client that will leave you if you don’t deliver.
This might also take the form of sharing your goals with your blog readers and then giving updates on your progress. Lodewijkvdb at ‘How to Be an Original’ does a weekly goal update that I enjoy reading very much. It is inspiring to see others setting and achieving goals.
Lesson Learned #3: Create a Process to Achieve the Results
This is perhaps the most critical piece of this entire post and something that can help you to grow your business tremendously. The reason that others had failed at the task of reducing the email backlog was that their strategy involved doing MORE of the same thing.
They had set goals for customer service people to handle 300 emails a day even though time and again, they had only been able to handle 100 each day. Another strategy that hadn’t worked in the past was to hire more people, but this proved very difficult considering the company’s very selective hiring process and low pay for CS reps. Clearly doing more of the same thing wasn’t working.
For example, if you’re a writer, a strategy to exponentially grow your business is NOT to write more. If you’re a graphic designer, a strategy to exponentially grow your business in NOT to get more clients.
If this is your strategy, you will very quickly run out of time, cap your income, and be trapped by your commitments.
In the example situation, I created a system analyzing the most common customer service questions, creating pre-made responses for each of the main types of questions, ran the 80,000 emails through a series of keyword-based filters to identify the topic of the email, separated them each into different “buckets,” and then had the CS team run these through a rigged up process that would send out back the correct auto response to each person.
In exactly 3 weeks, the backlog was cleared, the CS team felt powerful instead of like failures as they had felt like before, and the department went on to win an award that quarter for being one of the most effective departments in the company. For leading this change and several other similar projects, I even earned the company’s highest honor award for living the company’s 3 core values of winning, open communication, and ‘where there’s a will theres’ a way’ thinking.
Take Away: Setting growth goals does not mean doing more of the same old semi-profitable thing. It means creating systems that allow you to grow exponentially.
Here is a very real example of how a writer might apply this methodology:
Goal: Sell 250,000 pieces of written material in one year. Instead of writing 250,000 articles that you can sell once, find a company with an already large captive audience. An example might be landing a contract with a network marketing company with a million reps that would be highly motivated to buy a book on how to market their products laced with success stories of people within the company.
Negotiate a deal where they will market the book to their existing reps and send it out to all new reps when they join. Since the company already has influence and marketing channels, this is an easy way to make more sales from one writing job rather than finding more writing jobs.
An idea for selling products
If you sell products, can you connect with another company with a pre-existing marketing channel? For example, my company My College Fundraising is set up to sell 1,000 to 10,000 gift packages per year. Each one of those packages includes products. I’m doing all of the legwork with the marketing and promotion, but the company whose products I stock the buckets will make 1,000 to 10,000 sales per year by doing no extra work other than having gotten on my radar. Can you seek out companies like this that can use your products as part of a package that they sell?
How can you build a smarter ‘system’ to increase your business or sales that doesn’t involve doing MORE of the work you’re doing now?
Lesson Learned #4: Devise an Action Plan
Once you’ve determined a goal, write it on paper. A strong goal will answer the question: “what by when?” If you’ve written a really good stretch goal, your first thought should be “how in the world could I possibly achieve that!?” However, I promise that if you commit that goal to paper and sit on it for a few days, you will begin formulating ideas about how to achieve it.
When coming up with ideas, you’ve got to be able to execute them using the resources that you have available to you right now. Resources = time, money, skills, influence, and the ability to attract talent among other things. If the next step in achieving your goal involves resources that you don’t have, you’ll probably procrastinate and feel ok about blaming your failure on the fact that you didn’t have the xyz you needed to make the end goal happen.
Next, work backward from the end goal to create ACTION STEPS and mini deadlines necessary for achieving the end goal. Every action step along the way should answer the question “what by when?”
Take Away: Don’t get too caught up with complicated project planning software that comes with a bunch of bells and whistles. This in and of itself can slow down progress. Creating an action list for every one of your mini goals on a simple piece of will suffice.
A good project management form will have 2 essential elements:
- Define a set of deliverables not actions (for example, secure 3 partnership deals vs. send out 200 emails asking for partnership deals)
- Define how you will measure success
You’ll find bloated project management forms that ask for many more details, but in my opinion, these are only 2 that really matter.
Summing Things Up:
- Set some crazy goals that are beyond which you think are achievable right now
- Make yourself accountable for achieving these goals by posting publicly or setting yourself up for failure if you don’t meet them
- Challenge yourself to think outside of your normal scope for a solution to achieve your goals
- Create a solid action plan to get there
- Pull the trigger
Even knowing these things, I have hindered my own success over the past year or so because I haven’t acted on these things that I know work. The reason is that I became “comfortable,” with my current situation. In 2008, I’m going to be making some major changes to dramatically improve my lifestyle and satisfaction and I hope that you will too!
Topics: Business Development, Freelancer Tips |
57 Comments »
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I think setting crazy goals is a fantastic idea. I always find myself setting goals that I am pretty positive I can achieve. Enough of that. Time to achieve some ridiculous goals!!
The ‘Just Pull The Trigger’ idea has definitely helped my side web projects move from being an idea to having live websites.
–Ryder Ross
That is so great to hear that ‘pulling the trigger’ has help you Ryder! It is far too easy to was too much time in life thinking, planning, and preparing and never executing. I’ve been there and done that and constantly have to keep myself in check by asking myself if I’m over planning or just procrastinating out of fear.
Thanks for sharing!
Christine
I bookmarked this one Christine. It is fuel for the soul of any and everyone who has every wanted to do something extraordinary in business.
Thank you so much Bunk ~ writing it was also fuel for the soul and a much needed refresher as January approaches. Let’s all achieve some ridiculous goals next year!
Thanks Christine for writing a brilliant post! Its simply superb and everyone should read it twice.
Taking on a challenge is the best way to get things done. (Have you read The Success Report by Michael Ross by any chance?)
I think it was Tony Robbins who said: success doesn’t depend on how many resources you have. But how resourceful you can be.
Almost any problem can be solved. You just need the can-do attitude. And tweak your thinking a bit… ask “how can I do this” instead of claiming “I can’t do this.”
Thanks so much Anke ~ I haven’t heard of Micheal Ross - but I checked it out and it certainly looks very interesting. Here’s the link:
http://www.sowpub.com/successreport.html
Wonder what that ONE thing is?!?
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the kick in the butt! You don’t know how much I needed that… some goals are just a month away, and are still very crazy (they already were when I set them).
I did not put myself out there with these goals to not achieve them, not without giving everything I got anyway. And this post was quite the kick in the butt to remind me of that!
And thanks for the link
Now people, please subscribe to my feed, I have quite a lot of new subscribers (a little over 2000) to accumulate before the end of the year. And that’s only one of the goals with a deadline approaching…yep, it’s got me scared sh*tless at times.
Lodewijkvdb - your goal posts really inspire me! I think it is amazing how when you share your goals and constantly focus on them, things seem to work in your favor toward achieving them. By just stating your goals here, you’ve already got a new subscriber - and hopefully many more!
Readers: Lodewijkvdb’s blog is certainly one to follow - I’ve been a subscriber for many months and recommend subscribing for sure!
Thanks Christine!
Sharing them sure does line up events in your favor, but if you set crazy goals…that’s simply not enough. But I needn’t tell you that
Thank you for that inspiring post! It’s the sort of common sense advice that isn’t actually that common. I’m going to sit down tonight and formulate my impossible goal.
Have fun formulating those ridiculous goals Rose! I’ll be doing the same over the weekend. I’d love to hear what you come up with!
What a great blog you’ve got there! I wanted to subscribe but didn’t see an RSS button - do you have a feed?
You have really fired me up with this one, Christine. I’ve never heard anybody list a step as “pull the trigger.” BAM! That is powerful stuff.
@Lodewijkvdb, I can help you reach that goal. I just subscribed to your blog. I’m going to enjoy reading it!
lol - Thanks Michael! ‘Pull the trigger’ is one of my absolute favorite terms! It took my a long time to get comfortable with pulling the trigger on things, but once you build confidence, it can become so easy - and fun! It is when you finally pull the trigger that the explosion of action really happens.
Thanks Michael!
One at a time is definitely the way to go
If you have any feedback, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
[…] Self Made Chick - I’m always finding new blogs to plunder for goodies and Self Made Chick is a great find. This post about achieving Ridiculous Goals may be more about business, but I challenge anyone to apply it to projects at home. […]
More than a decade ago I left my corporate job (two months after buying a house) to become a full-time performing artist. A few months ago I picked up a manuscript I started 10 years ago and finished it in 6 months and publishing it as an ebook. Despite setting what I believe are huge goal, I have to say I did not . Even now I am not quite sure how to do that but you got me thinking!
Thanks!
I would say that’s a huge goal T! Writing a manuscript in 6 months that you had had somehow challenged you for 10 years - wow!
It’s amazing what we can do when we put our minds to a solution. I had a business idea for 13 years that I passively avoided… the ‘failure’ of it ate away at me in the back of my mind. Then I put my mind to it and had the entire website up for it in a week. It seems that it’s often not the completion of the ‘tasks’ that slow things down, but the fear of actually completing the goal that holds us up.
Thanks for sharing - and congrats on finishing that manuscript!
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Christine
Once more you’ve created an inspiring and practical post. It’s always a pleasure to read your blog. Which is why I have tagged you to participate in a meme requesting you to tell 7 facts about yourself - I hope you have some fun with it!
Liz
here’s the link:
http://www.morethanweknow.com/2007/12/01/women-entrepreneurs-networking-on-the-worldwide-web/
Thanks so much Liz! How cool that both of you grandmother’s were entrepreneurs… wow!
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[…] linked to my weekly reviews in a very useful article on setting and achieving crazy goals. That gave me a kick in the butt, and I needed that. I have learned some stuff about goals in the […]
Christine,
What an inspiring post! It is so easy to justify why a goal hasn’t been met. Even small daily goals that I set for myself. There are a million reasons and most of it stems from the fact that I am accountable to nobody but myself.
I am going to try to set some crazy goals and spread the word. My type A personality rarely lets me fail big-time — especially when my reputation may be on the line!
Thanks for the great advice. I always love reading your blog!
Tara
Thanks Tara - get ready, because we are going to achieve some ridiculous goals in 2008!!
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Wow! Thanks! Just what I needed since the downturn in the housing industry and internet taking some of that business so I’ve been blogging away and your input couldn’t come at a better time.
I’ll just have to put on a bigger thinking cap today and capture the true nature of my goals. Being a creative person makes it very difficult at times because we or I have a bit of A.D.D. and the focus is the problem for me. I’ve always made goals and hit them until this past year. I moved recently and been extremely bogged down with unpacking boxes for weeks so it’s thrown me off my game.
You’ve got me hooked. Thanks!
Michele
That’s great Michele! When I set my goals over the weekend, I realized that I was asking myself what I thought I could comfortably achieve vs. what I really WANTED. BTW - I love your blog! You and your brother are very creative people.
As a small business owner, I wanted to say that this was a very good post, great advice and it has made me look at some of my own goals.Thank You.
Thanks! I just created some goals but now I need to go back and make them more aggressive. I think it’s natural to set conservative goals at first. Sometimes I like to ask myself… would (fill in the blank of your success icon) think these were wimpy goals or smart goals?
I like that! That’s great. By the way, this post has really made me think about some things. Look for a post on my blog tomorrow about goals.
That’s awesome Michael - I’ll definitely be looking forward to that goals post. Like many people, I’m in the process of setting goals right now for 2008 and am interested in any and all insight and ideas on the topic!
[…] with 12 goals! And I was being ambitious with these goals too! Now there’s nothing wrong with ambitious (or even ridiculous) goals, as long as you don’t have too many of them at the same time! A total of 12 goals will divide […]
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This is an amazingly inspirational and practical article. It has really flipped a switch in my head! Thanks!
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The saying - Go big or go home - comes to mind
I definitely had to bookmark this one as well - I have alot of ideas and made it a habit to just subscribe to blogs that inspire me. But the downside was just that, I kept subscribing to blogs, reading blogs and not doing anything! Only standing in awe of people who are out there creating websites, writing a blog and implementing what’s going on in their head. Thankfully I’ve taken a first step into creating and achieving some goals. Thanks again!
[…] Aim high but grow slowly. I had no idea how I would do this, but I figured if humans had the capability to put a rover on Mars and launch satellites into space, then there must be some way to clear out 80,000 emails in 3 weeks. If it is humanly possible, then it’s not impossible. It’s just a matter of figuring out a way to do it. After just over a year in business, we still have a long way to go in ‘proving’ anything, but because we’ve used the same grassroots approach to building our own business (which has been successfully busy from day 1 without going into any debt), we are walking the walk. There are no shortcuts to gratification here and, in fact, some days are really hard. […]
Creating very large goals is great but…A person should create short and middle term goals that help build up to this large goal. I would advise to be careful in the negative reinforcement so as not to get yourself into anything to serious. Lastly if you really want to see some methods for reaching a ridiculous goal you should check out this software: http://www.goal-attaining.com/
[…] visualizing some lofty dreams. They are keeping me up at night. Today, I read Christine OKelley’s How to Achieve Ridiculous Goals. That article pushed me over the edge. I have to go […]
Useful Links for Bloggers and Businesses
Bloggers have been busy this month. There are currently a ton of great learning resources out there for anyone looking for a crash course in marketing and/or blogging. Here are the ones that I have found useful:
IttyBiz is running it’s 31 Days of Mar…
Damn, you’re good!
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[…] In How to Achieve Ridiculous Goals, Christine explains how she, as a new Operation Manager of a start-up company, cleared 80,000 customer email backlogs in 3 weeks. She says it took more than a year for the backlog to build to this level. There weren’t enough number of customer service reps to answer these emails one by one. Just demanding them to work faster didn’t work, either. So what did she do? She says: I created a system analyzing the most common customer service questions, creating pre-made responses for each of the main types of questions, ran the 80,000 emails through a series of keyword-based filters to identify the topic of the email, separated them each into different “buckets,” and then had the CS team run these through a rigged up process that would send out back the correct auto response to each person. In exactly 3 weeks, the backlog was cleared. […]
Thanks for the inspiration, Christine! This is really giving me a kick up the bum to continue the journey I’m on. I’ll be sure to subscribe to your feed if it will help you reach another goal!
Thanks Rosie! My latest ridiculous goal is to make $20,000 in passive income by the end of the year. What a great blog you have! Another of my goals is to get over the Europe and do some serious traveling. Until then, I’ll just live vicariously through the photos on your blog!
~ Christine
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