This post is a part of our New Year’s Book Club! If you haven’t already, check out our introduction post to learn more about book club and download our free resources! You can purchase the book here. Have you ever read a leadership book that told you to start doing things badly? Jon notes in this week’s reading the importance of “bombing” things. Often times, we overestimate our ability to take things on and do them really well. Perfectionism makes us believe we can do everything perfectly. Reality, however, reminds us that we absolutely cannot.
Perfectionism makes us believe we can do everything perfectly. Reality, however, reminds us that we absolutely cannot. Click To TweetBut before he talked about dropping the ball on some things, he highlights something very practical and important: Cutting your goals in half.
So you want to lose 50 pounds? Or write an entire book. Or transform your entire organization in 6 months. The bigger and more overwhelming our goals get, the harder it will be for us to follow through and actually achieve them. Big goals aren’t impossible, but they are if you try to do everything all at once.
If you didn’t have time to read this week, that’s okay! However, I highly suggest going back to read Chapters 2 and 3, as we are getting into the practical leadership practices of the book. In the meantime, here are some of the big takeaways.
WEEK TWO TAKEAWAYS
1. Stop “supersizing” your goals. (pg. 20) As Jon notes, perfectionism makes us supersize our goals in the beginning. Maybe you set out to read 200 books in 2018. Because, “go big or go home” right? If your current goals are too optimistic, it might be time to reevaluate. I don’t doubt your ability to conquer the world this year, but it might be more helpful to scale your goals back a little bit.
2. Re-size your goal. (pg. 25) There are two good ways to re-size a goal: Cutting it in half, or giving yourself more time.
3. Be bad at something. (pg. 33) In Chapter 3, Jon says, “To be good at one thing you have to be bad at something else.” What are the things you’re trying to be good at that aren’t important to your overarching goals?
What are the things you’re trying to be good at that aren’t important to your overarching goals? Click To Tweet
WEEK 2 LEADERSHIP CHALLENGE:
Resize your goals and restructure your priorities.
What goals will you cut in half or give yourself more time for? And what will you choose to “bomb” in order to excel in your goals?
Write it down on the back of your Challenge Worksheet for Week 2, and keep track of your progress throughout the week. If you haven’t downloaded our Challenge Worksheet, you can grab it for free here.
What did you learn this week? Be sure to share with us by using the hashtag #ILIreads and #ILIFinish!
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