I was supposed to be part of a great Twitter Space (social audio) discussion with my friend Mike Lamb last week.

We host this space every Thursday at 9:30 am eastern time (6:30 Pacific, Mike lives in Portland, OR! Kudos to him for being ready to go at that hour).

The Space lasts for an hour and every week we tackle a different topic related to goals. We have talked about the following things over the past 15 months:

setting goals
developing habits to reach your goals
tracking your goals
resetting your goals
macro goals
micro goals
nano goals
sharing your goals
what to do if you fail in your pursuit of goals
what to do when you accomplish your goals
collaborating to reach goals
when to have a goal
when to not have a goal
when to give up on a goal

This is just a piece of our efforts. We’ve hosted about 65 Thursday Spaces to this point.

I saw a tweet back in late 2021 and asked Mike if he wanted to do a Space about it. It was a great time and we decided to keep it going. Mike is the IT manager for the city of Portland so he’s a smart, driven guy with a serious career. He manages a team of people that keep the city running in the digital world.

I admire Mike because he’s also a faithful family guy. One of these days we’ll meet in IRL (in real life). Now that I have family, whom I’ve mentioned before, moving to Oregon this summer, it could be real soon. Read the September 29 edition of E-Impact to learn a bit more about them.

In Mike’s free time - which I’m not sure where he finds it - he is building a life-coaching business. Part of living a fulfilled life is accomplishing your goals so our weekly discussions are right up his alley.

Sadly, I was unable to speak in the Space because Twitter is having an issue with newer Android phones (which I found out the next day, Friday, in another Space I was trying to participate in). Hopefully, they have it fixed this week for my Wednesday Space, called The Creator’s Unwind with my friend Liam Sandford from E-Impact 100.

Direction

One of the great things about goals is that they provide you with some direction. Mike tweeted about the concept and I highlighted it as a possible topic.

Here’s a thread subsequent to the Space and related to the original tweet.

The idea is that we are often concerned with the pace at which we pursue our goals. Fast is usually better, right? Well…not so fast.

Speed can be helpful but it is not paramount. The real key ingredient is direction.

The calculation that includes speed and direction is known as velocity.

Velocity - the speed of something in a given direction

Check out the diagram in Mike’s thread and you’ll get a greater understanding of how this applies to our goals.

Aim

Think of the things in life where aim is important. These come to mind for me:

driving
writing
urinating (can’t believe I included this)
running
sports in general
shooting
throwing
diving

The list is truly endless. In other words, aim is really important!

It’s easy to apply aim to simple tasks in our day. In turn, you might think it would be the same for our larger efforts. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy and Mission Drift is a thing (see E-Impact 119 for more on this concept).

Focus

A big reason why Mike and I have a topic to discuss every week is because focusing on your aim towards your goals is tough. It’s harder than ever these days. Technology adds speed but not necessarily velocity.

Velocity requires focus. Speed is more mindless.

Your impact work in life and in business relies upon your ability to prioritize velocity over speed.

What to Do

Three things (all related to a great goal system) come to mind when it comes to focusing on this:

A desired result
Repeated processes
Rewards

Consistency is the key and these things allow for it. A desired result is like a goal but not as detailed. It gives you something to concentrate on - a reason or purpose for taking action.

If a desired result is to a goal, repeated processes are to habits. They are not as formalized but they make it simple for your mind to take action.

Rewards are what make you keep coming back. Eventually, reasons and rewards don’t cut it. You have to give yourself something to “fight” for in the shorter term.

What Not to Do

The first thing I thought of when the discussion on velocity broke out was terminal velocity. A concept I remember learning about in high school. In fact, I did a whole project on it for my physics class.

Terminal velocity is the maximum speed an object reaches when falling through something (usually the air).

It occurs when the sum of the drag force and the buoyancy is equal to the downward force of gravity acting on the object. Okay, that’s over my head - let’s aim away from the physics and back to the philosophy.

*Side note: I think we aced that project.

Terminal velocity is important because just about every message and advertisement we see these days are designed to help us reach this impossible rate. Ironically, it’s all the messages themselves that prevent us from reaching it (or anything close, to be honest).

At the risk of getting back to physics, a falling object cannot reach terminal velocity if it’s vector is being influenced by something else, like wind.

Picture yourself climbing a skyscraper on a windy day and dropping a bowling ball. The moving air would blow it off course and prevent it from reaching terminal velocity - the greatest rate it could possibly have.

It’s about progress over perfection for you.

The winds of life will always show up.

You can’t expect terminal velocity in impact work. There’s an ideal midpoint.

Why Goals are Important

I realize this seems like a sales pitch for our Space but the topic is powerful. People who have a great goal system do great things.

They aim very well because they are focused and they are focused because they’ve taken the time to develop the goal system.

Even some of the simplest things make us create systems. Shortly before I sat down to type this entry, I went to the supermarket. I enjoy browsing the store so I’m not one to have a tangible shopping list but I did check in with Mrs. Depasquale to see if she needed anything. Of course, she requested Cuties.

I had a simple system to help me reach my goal of coming home with the food items we needed. You might have a place in the kitchen where you write out items throughout the week before going to the store on the weekend. Or, you might use a digital document.

You have a goal system for food shopping. Why not have one for your life and business goals?

Fire

I consider myself a “ready-fire-aim” type of guy and there is something to be said for defaulting to action. But in this case, I urge you to focus on your firing.

Being a “self-starter” or “ready-fire-aim” person isn’t all that special these days. As alluded to above, what’s special is being able to aim well. The Internet provides us with plenty of information. We have ideas at the ready. Artificial intelligence and other technology tools make it easy to fire.

Aiming is still up to you!

The people and businesses who will win in the next season of the world are those who have a consistent aim.

Velocity

Last bit of science I promise…

This is the formula for velocity.

Average Velocity=

Displacement divided by Change in time

You have to consider your average velocity related to a given project over a period of time.

There will be times for “sprints” in your work but you have to be laser-focused and they are not sustainable.

Always ask yourself if your velocity is sustainable. And make the distinction between speed and velocity. Where you are going or what you are pursuing matters!

It’s obvious that you can’t be at high speed all the time and it’s easiest to slow down. Velocity is different. You have the propensity to change course before slowing down. This is huge!

Your adjustment for velocity comes in the direction first which means you will lose focus before pace. This is Mission Drift.

You are still 100 miles per hour but now in the wrong direction. You can get far off course in a short amount of time.

Aim In the Middle

The solution is to aim in the middle.

Aim for a goal that is too far and you’ll add speed to get there. When the inevitable drift comes, you are moving off course at a dangerous speed.

Aim for a goal that is too close and you’ll develop underwhelming habits. Mission drift will still come but you might not realize it.

The Sweet Spot

The middle is the sweet spot of generosity and impact. You’ll know it when you find it and just like most things in life, it will take some practice.

You’ll have some things you wish you pushed harder for and others you wish you didn’t waste all your energy on. This is part of the growth process.

The best thing to do is to keep monitoring and adjusting as needed. It’s an ongoing process.

The sweet post is not static.

Aim in the Middle