Are those goals you want or goals you think you should have? (1-19-22)

Last week was about surge protectors and putting things in place to ensure you won’t be overloaded. This week is about deciding whether your goals are ones you want or goals you think you should have.

For years, whenever I started the new year I would set over the top goals like, “This is the year I: get ripped, read 50 classic literature novels, stop eating out, and/or only buy essentials so I can save every cent.” On the surface, these all sound like nice things. The issue is that these aren’t really my goals. These aren’t outcomes that I really want to achieve. These are goals I think I SHOULD have, because these sound like goals that “good” people have. If I don’t have those same goals, aren’t I less than the “good” people? Does this sound familiar to you?

Truth be told, I don’t actually want any of those goals I’m should to have. I don’t necessarily need to be ripped with a six pack. I want to get stronger and I want to move better. I enjoy reading, but I don’t need to read 50 classic literature books. I just want to read more often, because it brings me joy and I’ll read whatever I like whether it’s silly, serious, graphic novels, or business books. I don’t need to save every penny and pass on eating out. I want to be more intentional with my money, but I work to live, so I’m okay with spending money to enjoy life. I don’t need their goals. I need to know what mine are.

What does this have to do with work? Earlier in my career I wanted to climb the corporate ladder, run things, lead the company, be THE guy. Part of the reason I wanted those things is because I thought I was supposed to want them. Getting to that level is what I thought success looked like. Getting to that level meant I was talented and worth something. Have you ever felt like that? As I’ve grown more comfortable with who I am and what I want in life, the goals I thought I should have are not the same goals I actually want. I’m never going to be a VP, and no offense to any VPs who read this, but I don’t have a desire to be one. It doesn’t look like my jam. While I don’t want to climb to the top of the ladder, I do still want to grow. I want to have the opportunity and responsible of officially leading a team. I want to continue to have broader impact as I deepen my expertise in marketing and market research. I want to continue to find ways to influence and improve the culture across the organization. Those are the things I want to achieve. I’m not sure where my career will take me, but I do know it will be driven by goals that are MINE and not by goals I’m supposed to care about. I hope yours does too.

The challenge: As you look at your goals, are they the ones you want or the ones you think you should have?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

What Do Our Goals Tell Us About Ourselves? (12-1-21)

This week we will start a 2 part series about reflecting on the end of the year. We’ll start by reflecting on the goals we set earlier this year and what those goals can tell us about ourselves.

At the beginning of every year I set goals for myself across a few categories: career, financial, physical, mental, and relationships. I wanted to lead a successful launch meeting. I wanted to save X amount of money. I wanted to complete an obstacle course race. I wanted to read at least 20 books. I wanted to go on a couple of date nights with my wife every month. As this year comes to a close, I’ll stop to look at which goals I achieved. I had some hits and I had some misses too.

In an achievement obsessed culture, it will be easy to just focus on the accomplishments. It will be easy to say, “I’m good, because I achieved A and B goals.” And “I’m bad, because I missed on X and Y goals.” I’d argue life is more than just achievement. There were some goals I accomplished and realized they weren’t as important as I thought they were. At the end of everything I didn’t feel different and I didn’t learn anything. There were some goals I accomplished and realized it wasn’t about the goal at all, but the journey I went on that transformed me. On the flip side, there were goals I missed in life. Some of those misses hurt. Some of them didn’t hurt as bad as I thought they did, which continued to show me what is truly important in life.

What does this have to do with anything? As we wind down for the year, I hope we all take the time to look at the goals we set for ourselves in work and life. When we do, the first thing we will ask is whether or not we achieved our goals, but I’d encourage us reflect further. I hope we take time to ask ourselves more questions about what it means when we hit or don’t hit a goal.

If you hit a goal– What does that signify to you? Is hitting this goal as important as you thought it would be when you set it? What does that tell you? How did you hit that goal? Is this something you want to continue focusing on? Do you want to build on this success? If so, how?

If you missed a goal– What does that signify to you? Is missing this goal as important as you thought it would be when you set it? What does that tell you? Why did you miss achieving the goal? What was in your control and outside of your control? What did you learn? How will you adapt in the future? Will you keep this as a goal or will you go in a new direction?

The challenge: What do your goals tell you about yourself?

Bonus: Happy Hanukkah to all my friends celebrating.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Running, Personal Records, and Doing your Best (8-21-19)

This will be the last in the series about running. We started with gutting out tough runs, and then looked at refueling and giving fuel to others. From there we focused on understanding where the finish line is, and how we might need to train to get there. Last week was about accepting that we are worthy. This week is about running, doing your best, and striving for growth.

A few months ago, I finished a race. When I got home Alice (7), asked me, “Daddy, did you win?” I chuckled at the question, because the only way I’d ever win a race is if all the runners were miraculously hit by a magic spell that made them run backwards. Anyway, I told Alice that I didn’t win, and that most of the other runners are faster and better than I am. Then Alice said, “Okay. Well, did you beat your personal score? (She meant personal record aka PR) Did you do your best? Those are the things that matter, right?” I smiled a ridiculously proud smile, and let her know that I had done my best and today doing my best also meant beating my personal record. Then, I told her I agreed that trying to get better and doing your best are the main things that matter, and those are the main things we can control.

You probably see where this is going. We are all running our own race, and we are all facing obstacles, many of which are out of our control. When we face these obstacles, it’s so easy to get focused on them that we lose sight of what we can control. One thing we can control is the amount of effort we put in. We can control whether we come in and give it our all every single day. We can control the energy and effort we give to our projects and our relationships. The other thing we can control is our drive to improve and grow. It’s easy to get into a routine. It’s easy to fall into the rhythm of a role where things are going smoothly. I don’t know about you, but when this happens it’s easy to be content with getting by vs. being focused on improving. I’ve mentioned in previous blogs that I spend a decent amount of time reflecting. One of the reasons I do this is because it helps me understand where I currently am, where I’m still falling short, and what I can do to beat my personal best. Each day is another run, another race, and another chance to get better.

The challenge: Keep running. Keep striving. Keep beating your personal records.

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Adjust Training to Reach New Goals (8-7-19)

Last week was about knowing where the finish line is. This week is about knowing your destination and training accordingly.

Last year I had a goal to complete a half-marathon in under 2 hours. This was quite a stretch for me. In order to run a half-marathon under 2 hours, I would need to run approximately 9 minute miles, and my normal pace for a mile is around 11 minutes. As I trained for this, I had to force myself to train faster than what I was accustomed to running, so I could build up the speed and stamina to carry me through. In November of 2018, I reached my goal and finished a half-marathon in about 1 hour 59 minutes. (#skinofmyteeth #itstillcounts). A few months after that I decided to run a full marathon. My goal was to just finish the marathon. I knew that if I ran the marathon at my half-marathon pace, I wouldn’t be able to safely complete the race. As I trained, I ran slow and steady (around a 12 min 30 sec) pace, and I built up my endurance over time. I also spent more time stretching and doing yoga to keep my body relatively fresh and healthy. I finished my first marathon in April in about 5 hours and 30 minutes. (#turtlepower)

What does this have to do with anything? The thing that led to me having a successful half-marathon would not be the same thing that would make me have a successful marathon. In the story above I had to change my training and the way I operated based on the goal I had. Think about work for a moment. Think about the times that you’ve started a new role or a new project. What did it take for you to be successful in that new role vs. your old role? What did it take as your responsibilities changed? How did you have to adapt to deliver on these new responsibilities? What I’ve found throughout my career is that there are always things that transfer from one role to the next. At the same time if I leveraged ONLY what I did in my old role in my new role, I’d never reach my new goals, because new challenges require new skills.

Embry example, before my current role I worked in market research, where I spent a lot of my time thinking about big picture strategy, defining problems, and figuring out how to answer questions. In my new role, half my job is strategy, which leverages previous skills, and the other half of my job is more operational focused. This operational component has caused me to think more about timelines, processes, and how things work at a more detailed level than I’m accustomed to. This has caused me to stretch and use muscles I haven’t used as often in the past. If I attacked this job the same way I did my market research job I would fail. I’ve had to adapt based on my new goals. My main goal right now is to not get fired for being incompetent 😉 #sofarsogoodbutit’sstillearly. Actually, one of my goals is to figure out how to operationalize things in a way that causes the least amount of swirl and wasted effort possible. I haven’t mastered this yet, but am learning things and adapting in ways that might help me reach this goal in the future.

The challenge: Are you adapting your “training” to new goals or are you stuck doing “old things” that will only help you meet old goals?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Pinky and the Brain- Trying to Take over the World! (11-7-18)

This week we are going to start a series inspired by my favorite cartoons. This week I want us to reflect on Pinky and the Brain and driving to achieve high goals.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Pinky and the Brain were two characters on a cartoon called Animaniacs. Their show is about two lab mice, Pinky, a happy go lucky fellow, and Brain, an evil diabolical genius. Every episode of the show revolved around Brain’s attempts to take over the world. During each episode Brain would invent some amazing machine or use some mathematical formula to come within inches of world domination, and then at the last minute something would go wrong and his goal would slip from his grasp. Every episode would also include the scene captured in the image on the right where Brain reaffirmed his desire to keep trying to take over the world. That’s right. Even after falling short every single time, Brain stayed focused, got back up, dusted himself off, and went back to trying to take over the world.

You might see where this is going. Brain sets a ridiculously high goal, and then he pursues that goal with fierce focus and tenacity. He fails and he keeps going. Something goes wrong and he keeps going. His device blows up and he keeps going. While I don’t want us to be evil diabolical masterminds, I do think we could learn a lot from Brain’s fierce focus and tenacity.

What is your version of “trying to take over the world”? For myself, I’ve spent the year working on ways to step my game up. I wanted to help more people, have more impact, provide more value, increase my mastery at work, etc. As far as what success would look like, when it came to my job, my goal has been to be so damn good that I made everything look and feel effortless. I wanted to provide so much value that people would look at me and say, “He has to be a legit wizard. That’s the only rational explanation for how he does what he does.” I knew if I operated at this level, then I’d be making a substantial difference in the lives of people within the walls of my company and outside of those walls as well, which would be my version of “taking over the world.” (I know. It’s kind of silly and ridiculous, but if a cartoon mouse can dream of taking over the world, I can dream of being recognized as a wizard.)

With all that said, I never took over the world. I never achieved full-fledged wizard status. I continually fell short. I made mistakes. I mismanaged situations. I didn’t influence and change the lives of all the people I wanted to. I didn’t always know the answers. I took wrong turns and the wrong steps. I wasn’t always operating at that “wizard” level. I’m not angry/mad/upset/sad about any of those things. They are just facts of life. Much like Brain, when these setbacks occurred I was irritated, but then I gained sight of my goal and went back to “trying to take over the world”. While I never quite got to the level I wanted to get to, I know with 100% certainty that I grew and became a lot better this year. I am closer to being a wizard than I have ever been, and it’s all because every morning when I woke up I wanted to do the same thing I did every other morning, try to “take over the world!”

The challenge: What is your version of “taking over the world”? Are you chasing that goal with focus and tenacity?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Do your goals motivate you? (1-21-15)

I hope that you’ve been getting your shine on since last week. This week we’ll continue to talk about goals and ask ourselves what appears to be a dumb question. Do the goals you set motivate you? I ask, because I’m often guilty of setting goals that don’t really motivate me, and I’d bet you do to.

Let’s look at a goal that many of us have when we start a new year, losing weight. This is going to sound stupid, but I don’t’ really know what the numbers on the scale mean. Obviously I’m overweight, and need to lose weight. However, I can’t tell you if losing 15 pounds would make me feel any better or worse compared to losing 10 pounds. The number doesn’t do anything for me.

This is about finding the goal, the dream that motivates you. I want to feel stronger than I do right now. I want to go through each day feeling like I’m constantly in beast mode/the zone/the flow or whatever you want to call that feeling. That’s the thing that motivates me, so that’s what I’m going to shoot for. I know in order to have this feeling on a consistent basis I need to take better care of myself. I might use weight, waist size, etc. to track progress, but my goal is to consistently be in those flow moments.

Now let’s apply this to work. It’s all about finding your thing. What gets me going is not the same thing that gets you going, and that’s fine. What goal motivates you? In the course of this year I will have projects and things that I work on and will be measured against, but those are just a means to an end for me. Here’s my dream for this role. I want to weave a beautiful story that moves people and connects everything together in a meaningful way for them. I want people to walk away with a greater sense of purpose, hope, engagement, and dedication as a result of some of the work I do and because of who I am. I want them to take this greater sense of hope, purpose, and engagement and impact patients. Now, I’m not sure how I work that into a myPM document, but if I could come close to that I would feel like a million bucks.

What is the goal you have that motivates you?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry