Your Goal Sucks

I have a goal to write a novel.

I have a goal to make a movie.

I have a goal to make a million dollars.

I have a goal to lose 5 pounds. Or 10. Or 50.

I have a goal to see the world. Or at least to see the Grand Canyon.

But goals are easy. Easy as pie.

You can write them down. Make them S.M.A.R.T. or S.M.A.R.T.E.R. or the S.M.A.R.T.E.R.E.S.T. (I made up the last one. I don’ think it’s a thing.).

People pine their lives away over goals. I will do it. Someday. When I have time. When the kids are grown. When the garage is clean and my work schedule isn’t quite so crazy. When the news cycle isn’t capturing most of my attention. When I retire. Sometime before I’m dead. When I have more money or when I have more time.

These are excuses. We both know this. But, really, excuses are not the problem at the end of the day.

Here’s the problem:

Goals are for amateurs.

A professional has a process.

Pick one thing that’s important enough to complete (don’t choose all the things. Not right now. You can’t do all the things right now.) Develop a process for getting it done.

Then work the process.

That’s the way of professionals.

Think processes and systems over dreams and goals. Be a professional

Most think about the difference between an amateur and a pro as having mostly to do with money. And while there is some truth to this differentiation, that’s not where we start.

We start with the work. Always start with the work.

Amateurs start, professionals finish

This could be said another way: amateurs dream, professionals do.
Every project starts with a dream. A vision of what a finished project will look like, whether it’s a book or a song or a software development team. Sometimes the amateur even gets a plan in place, and a couple of wheels turning. But when wheels get turning, things get hard. Either fear or laziness kicks in. There are missed deadlines (or no deadlines) and little momentum.

The professional pushes through laziness and fear and finds solutions for difficult challenges. Professionals find a way to finish.

Amateurs do the fun 80%, professionals do the difficult 20%

This is the best way to spot professionals and amateurs in a crowd. Look for who’s doing the fun part and who is doing the challenging parts. The pros know that the messiest knots have to be undone. They know if they don’t do the untangling work, who will? Amateurs gravitate toward to the easy bits. The quick wins. The 80% that’s fun, skipping the 20% tough part. The professional spends most of her time with the 20%.

Amateurs “get ‘er done,” professionals care about the details.

Amateurs aren’t so great at finishing. When a project is getting close, they tend to adopt a “hurry up and get this over with, good enough for government work” attitude. A professional cares about the details. Let’s make sure we put a product into the world that we can be proud of. It may not be perfect (in fact, it probably won’t be perfect because a professional also updates and upgrades). But this should be something we can be proud of. The fine lines and hidden features are actually important. The professional takes an extra hour to check for typos and make sure the links work. Sometimes there are still typos and the links don’t work — but the pro cares.

The amateur is just glad it’s over.

Originally published at www.bernieanderson.com. Yes, I’m unashamedly riffing on Steven Pressfield.