What if the comfortable goals you've been setting are actually holding you back from your greatest achievements? In this inaugural episode of The After Show, I challenge the conventional wisdom of SMART goal-setting by proposing a powerful shift: replacing "Realistic" with "Hard" to create SMAHT goals (Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Hard (or Heaven must help!), Time-based).
When we set merely realistic goals, we stay in our comfort zones. But hard goals—those that make us squirm a little in our seats, that require new skills and outside help—these are the goals that transform us and the world around us. Consider Jesus commissioning his disciples to reach "all nations," not just a few—an impossibly hard goal at the time, yet one that changed history.
I share my own struggle with perfectionism in launching this very podcast, waiting too long for everything to be "just right" before pushing record. As Chris Tucker's character in Rush Hour might say, sometimes you just need to "push the damn button" and get started. Hard goals require us to overcome these mental barriers and move forward despite imperfection.
The path to achieving hard goals isn't mysterious. Write them down (increasing your chances of success by 80%), create a scorecard to track progress, and share your goals with someone who'll hold you accountable. I'm applying these principles to my own ambitious goal of reaching one million podcast downloads by the decade's end—not for personal glory, but because of the impact those million connections could create.
Ready to choose your hard? As the poem says, "Life will never be easy. It will always be hard, but we can choose our hard." What impossible goal will you set today?

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Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!
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