Ok who really likes targets? The poor chaps from Catch 22 certainly didnt.... Are targets really only for those playing Robin Hood on a warm winters afternoon? Or for midrange Australia wanting to buy at a department stores?
Targets are for Guns! You know those people that are referred as "Guns" or sometimes "Young Guns". Its the 20 goal a year striker, its the cold caller determined to make something happen, its the programmer wanting to establish their work into something productive and useful, its the elite athlete wanting to get to the top (think Cadel Evans sans the broken elbow) and its most certainly every entrepreneur wanting to build a business or organisation.
I must profess I consider myself a "gun". Partially because I am really driven and most definitely because I love targets. Yes they create pressure and stress. Yes they put you under the spotlight. Yes they can be unfair and subjective. But they also create achievement, standards of excellence, best practice, benchmarks and a real reason to get out of bed. I certainly have a love/hate relationship with targets as they keep going up and the nagging voice of the "negative (evil) geoff" keeps telling me its not possible, or its too hard or it cant be done. BUT the love part always outweighs the balance and I find myself pushing forward at a great rate of knots.
So are targets for everyone? Absolutely! Everyone could and should be a gun. Whether it be a gun salesman, a gun attorney, a gun housewife, a gun receptionist, a gun cabbie, a gun admin, a gun techo and the list goes on. Embrace targets. Set them up as a guide to success. Everything is achievable when you have a list of milestones and targets to reach. Yes things get harder and further but then you get better and stronger. Imagine a computer game where things don't get more challenging and harder to accomplish. Boring right?
So set targets. Make them realistic and achievable within correct time frames. Better yourself. Go on! Be all that you can be! Pull the trigger and be that gun _________ that you could and should be.....