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I had at least two directors who came in and did this, intentionally and overtly and vocally.  They announced it all at the very first meeting, and nearly everyone left it demoralized and shaking their heads.  I gather it was a "trendy thing" at one point in the 1980s or so.  And yes the idea was to set a goal far out and take the progress one made.  However, the steps one takes to achieve a reasonable STRETCHING goal are simply not the same steps one takes to meet some near impossible goal.  The latter requires one to consider highly implausible approaches that also would be financially completely beyond the Pale.

One director was thrilled when we got about 20% of the way along and was unfazed when we showed him the inherent costs of what we were doing.  And we were tapped out at that point, there was no further progress to be had.  Physics you know.

But directors came and went every three years so we waited them out, wasting a lot of time, effort, and money along the way.

It doesn't take much acumen and analysis to show we are NOT going to cut CO2 emissions in half in nine years, it is impossible without nuclear.  No "stretching forecast" of any kind gets us anywhere near that goal.  The numbers don't lie, politicians however do.  And the gullible think it's fine.

Well, I could set a self goal to become a major league pitcher and even do everything I could to reach that level, but it is about equally likely.

So, my goal if to be a reasonably effective fantasy league pitcher without the arm pain I've been having.  The topic of course is not about some individual goal.

Humans get disappointed easily when they realize they have been sold a bill of goods.  And that is not conducive to making what progress was conceivable.

Goals are fine. Wild stretch goals are fine. 

Goals without a plan are useless. Plans that one is unwilling to execute are worthless. 


Let's take the simple question of losing weight. Someone on January 1 says that their goal for 2021 was to lose 30 lbs. 

That's a great goal, and per OAM's point, losing 15 lbs or 20 lbs may not achieve the goal, a partial completion of the goal is at least a positive life change. 

Plans for this are easy... Eat less, exercise more, or both. It's not rocket science.

Yet people constantly fail at losing weight... Why? Because they're unwilling to execute the plan. 

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As for climate change, we have a few problems:

• We have difficulty creating concrete plans. What those plans COULD be are often somewhat simple, but every time that we then try to determine cost of those plans, who pays for it, and who is hurt by it, it becomes quickly clear that we're not willing to execute those plans.
• Most of the plans we come up with are incremental for what is perceived as a gigantic problem. If we drastically remake American society and reduce our carbon output by 50% over the next two decades, and the Earth still heats up to nigh-uninhabitable levels, then what's the point? It's like being 800 lbs and setting a goal to lose 400 lbs, and you only have a plan to lose 200. Even if you lose 200, you're still morbidly obese and you're going to die decades early... So your plan is useless.

So, if you want to set a goal, even a wild stretch goal, the first thing to do is to set a goal that will actually solve the problem that you intend to solve. Then you'd better construct a plan that will reach that goal. Finally, you need to be willing to execute that plan. 

Well, I could set a self goal to become a major league pitcher and even do everything I could to reach that level, but it is about equally likely.

So, my goal if to be a reasonably effective fantasy league pitcher without the arm pain I've been having.  The topic of course is not about some individual goal.

Humans get disappointed easily when they realize they have been sold a bill of goods.  And that is not conducive to making what progress was conceivable.

Okay, so if my goal is to throw hard and dominate my friends, I'm going to take strides to build up arm strength, hit my spots, and even change speeds, right?  I'm going to try to do that and if I reach my goal, I'll just barely reach it and probably require maintaining that level if I want to keep making my friends look like fools in the batter's box.
And that's fine.
But if I did set a higher goal of making it to the majors (or, for me, an equally impossible goal of making it to a minor league tryout), I'd go above and beyond, in hopes of striking out professional hitters, and wind up a tougher pitcher, right?  Even inevitably falling short, I come out ahead.  

 The numbers don't lie, politicians however do.  And the gullible think it's fine.

It's not gullible,it's you'll be found guilty for shooting politicians

 “Superior Labrum Anterior Posterior.”

I ripped mine up while pulling the tail light push rod on an Amish Aero Wagon

Okay, so if my goal is to throw hard and dominate my friends, I'm going to take strides to build up arm strength, hit my spots, and even change speeds, right?  I'm going to try to do that and if I reach my goal, I'll just barely reach it and probably require maintaining that level if I want to keep making my friends look like fools in the batter's box.
And that's fine.
But if I did set a higher goal of making it to the majors (or, for me, an equally impossible goal of making it to a minor league tryout), I'd go above and beyond, in hopes of striking out professional hitters, and wind up a tougher pitcher, right?  Even inevitably falling short, I come out ahead. 

If your goal is making it to the majors, and you have a plan and willingness to execute to that plan, you'll spend basically every waking minute not spent doing your day job to get there. You will quite literally eat, sleep, and sh!t baseball 24/7. You'll devote hours and hours in the gym, time [and money] with pitching coaches, personal trainers, nutrition planning, etc.

You won't have to worry about throwing hard and dominating your friends, because if you're putting that much time in, you won't see them for years anyway.

Now... What if you don't have the physical talent to throw in the majors, or even AAA ball? If that's the case [and just playing the odds I'm guessing it is], then why would you bother executing a plan to get you there? You're not willing to spend $5 on a lotto ticket, which has better odds than you suddenly finding athletic talent that doesn't exist. My advice to you would be to not even start on executing your plan, because the opportunity cost of what you could be doing with that time and money is much higher doing almost anything else. 

Of course, let's say your goal is to make it to the majors, and your plan only entails 50% more work than what it'll take to dominate your friends rather than hyper-focused dedication. Well, that's a crappy plan that doesn't have the dedication and effort needed to get to the majors. If that's your plan, then I'd say you don't really believe in, or want, to reach your goal, because your plan won't do it even if you execute. Your goal is a fantasy at that point.

I'm 42. You can qualify for the PGA senior tour at 50. That's 8 years. I think in the back of my head "what if I started now and really tried to make it?" But I'm not going to, because the amount of work needed to get there is more than I'm willing to put in on golf. So if I said my goal is to make the senior tour in 8 years, and you looked at how hard I'm working towards it, you'd realize that the goal is not attainable with that level of work. So it's just a fantasy, not a goal.