What’s Your Target? (Bot9 #366)

Have you ever had a sinking feeling that what you were doing wasn’t working, that you were missing the target? We’re all working hard but are we putting our efforts towards the right targets?

Olympian sharpshooter Matt Emmons found himself dominating the 2004 games in Athens. The American stepped into position for his final shot in the 50-meter challenge only needing to post a modest score to win his second gold medal. Not a bullseye, just on the board, something close. He went through his routine, calmed his nerves, and pulled the trigger.

Having one gold medal around his neck, he held a three-point lead and a score of only an 8.0 would have guaranteed he’d be going home with a second medal. He’d overcome adversity to win the first gold (someone had attempted to sabotage his rifle), and he was primed to win his second. His bullet struck just outside the bullseye, a shot that would have been worth 8.1 points…but the scoreboard didn’t register the shot. Emmons motioned to the officials, assuming it was a fairly common malfunction with the system where it failed to recognize the shot.

Unfortunately, it was Emmons who had made the mistake, not the electronics. The officials announced that Emmons had “cross-fired” at the target in the adjacent lane and awarded him zero points in the round. He had not only lost the gold medal, but plummeted to eighth place.

I’m guessing that most of us have found ourselves in this situation in one form or another. We get overloaded in our daily work and succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Instead of accomplishing what you desired to do at the beginning of the day, you end up drowning in the vortex of the whirlpool and lose yet another day. This goes beyond not accomplishing a “to-do” list and speaks more to being aimless in your work. As famous motivational speaker Zig Ziglar once said, "If you aim at nothing, you'll hit it every time."

Are you doing a job that fulfills your personal ‘why’? Are you setting the culture and atmosphere you desire to set when you’re with other people? Are you focused on accomplishing the mission and vision of your organization? Do you take time to remind yourself of these important things and live out your core values on a daily basis? The level of intentionality necessary to achieve complex goals requires these constant reminders. Take time this week to make sure you’re firing your arrows at the right target!