What Is Your Intermediate Goal?
Did you ever see Jack Nicklaus play golf? He was a golfing
phenomenon never before seen in the world of golf, winning more
major championships and money than any other golfer who ever
lived. Yet if you watch him carefully, you can learn more than
how to lower your handicap. You can learn a key strategy for
success.
Each time Jack got ready to hit the ball, he'd have an
intermediate aiming point, just a short distance from the ball.
This intermediate aiming point was on line with the route he
wanted the ball to travel. He would look down the fairway toward
the green, then at the intermediate aiming point, then at the
ball. His first task was to get the ball to pass over the
intermediate point. If it did that, it would probably land very
near the point on the fairway or green he had selected. It was
always interesting watching his head and eyes move to the
intermediate point, then to the distant point, then back to the
intermediate point and back to the ball.
When he was ready, and not a moment before, he would uncork that
legendary swing that left the gallery gasping and whooping with
admiration and wonder. The ball would compress flat and be off
and away on its considerable journey. It was the same with his
short irons near the green. He always had an intermediate point
with which he could line up his club head and the ball. We need
intermediate aiming points, too, before we can successfully
reach a substantial distant goal.
To write a book, one must write the first chapter, then
thesecond, then the third, and so on. The book is first in
outlineform. The chapters are roughly sketched as to subject
matter and content. One can get a mental picture of the book in
final form with its color dust jacket coming from the printer;
that's the goal. But first, there's that first chapter, then the
second, and so on. Each chapter must be successfully completed
as an integral part of the project before the project's
complete. And it's much the same with our big goals. All we
cansee is it as completed, with ourselves right in the middle of
it. There we are; the job's done. That's where we want to land.
But first there are the intermediate points to successfully
complete. And it's the intermediate points that often prove too
much or too difficult or too time-consuming forthe person to
spend all that time completing and polishing. These are often
the core skills, vital to the completion of the final project.
Here we find the person who wants to amaze a friend through his
skill at the piano but doesn't want to put in the time and
effort to learn to play. This is the person who's forever
looking for shortcuts. He or she daydreams, but when it comes
down to the nitty-gritty of the intermediate goals, ah, that's
too hard or boring or time consuming.Want to write books? How
about mastering the language first? Want to get rich in real
estate? Study the business first.
The first step of the successful person is commitment.There are
no ifs or buts about it. He or she is fully 100 percent
committed to the achievement of the goal and willing to take
whatever intermediate steps are required. When bridges are
burned, there's no escape route on which to come tiptoeing back
when things get rough.
Commitment to all the intermediate goals, 100 percent.When that
happens, the goal is as good as accomplished.