Choosing Your Hard: How Uncommon Leaders Set SMAHT Goals

What if the comfortable goals you've been setting are actually holding you back from your greatest achievements? In this inaugural episode of The After Show, I challenge the conventional wisdom of SMART goal-setting by proposing a powerful shift: replacing "Realistic" with "Hard" to create SMAHT goals (Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Hard (or Heaven must help!), Time-based).

When we set merely realistic goals, we stay in our comfort zones. But hard goals—those that make us squirm a little in our seats, that require new skills and outside help—these are the goals that transform us and the world around us. Consider Jesus commissioning his disciples to reach "all nations," not just a few—an impossibly hard goal at the time, yet one that changed history.

I share my own struggle with perfectionism in launching this very podcast, waiting too long for everything to be "just right" before pushing record. As Chris Tucker's character in Rush Hour might say, sometimes you just need to "push the damn button" and get started. Hard goals require us to overcome these mental barriers and move forward despite imperfection.

The path to achieving hard goals isn't mysterious. Write them down (increasing your chances of success by 80%), create a scorecard to track progress, and share your goals with someone who'll hold you accountable. I'm applying these principles to my own ambitious goal of reaching one million podcast downloads by the decade's end—not for personal glory, but because of the impact those million connections could create.

Ready to choose your hard? As the poem says, "Life will never be easy. It will always be hard, but we can choose our hard." What impossible goal will you set today?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hey, common Leaders, welcome back.
Well, I've hit the recordbutton.
It's the first episode of theAfter Show, a show designed to
summarize a little bit about arecent podcast episode that I
have but also add some of my owninsights.
I talk about it in the trailerepisode that really it is about
Monday morning quarterbackingjust a little bit and that it's
an opportunity for us to kind ofsit down, work together and

(00:24):
just enjoy our cup of coffee andlearn a little bit more and
dive deeper into some of thosethings that were there.
I recently had a conversationwith Chris Widener on the
Uncommon Leader podcast and itwas a fantastic episode.
When I had a chance to chatwith Chris, I was humbling.
No doubt he's a Hall of Famespeaker.
He's a two-time best-sellingauthor, he is also a ghostwriter

(00:47):
for John Maxwell, one of theauthors that I love to read
myself, and he was a SeattleSupersonics ball boy when he was
a kid as well, so the storythat impacted him when he was a
child as a leader today waspretty cool.
If you get a chance, you oughtto take a listen back to that
episode.
We actually had a chance toeven reminisce a little bit

(01:09):
about some of the players onthat team, jack Sigma, and a
specific story that he had inthere about DJ Dennis Johnson,
who became a favorite of minewhen he went to the Boston
Celtics.
I've been a longtime BostonCeltics fan, but take a look
back at that episodecoachjohngallaghercom forward
slash podcast and you can findthat interview that I had with

(01:30):
Chris Widener.
What I really appreciated aboutmy conversation with Chris was,
uh, an upcoming event that hewas planning and heading up.
It's called revive 25.
And ultimately, as he definedit as a massive revival, the
opportunity to bring 15,000 ormore Christians together in one

(01:51):
place and millions more online,really to think about how we can
have a bigger impact asChristians in our communities,
in our country and in our worldtoday.
I'm pretty jazzed up aboutwhat's possible, and he said
that's going to be out in thenext 90 days.
They were just getting thewebsite launched up.
If you get a chance, go torevive25.org and take a look at

(02:11):
that.
I think it's going to be aphenomenal event.
But for me, as I kind of satback and reflected on that a
little bit, it reminded me alittle bit of goal setting, and
that's what I want to talk toyou a little bit about today,
something I think will have animpact on you and how we
sometimes get goal setting wrong, and maybe some tips on how we
could get it right.
For me, one of the goal settingproblems, if you will, that I

(02:36):
often run into is perfection.
I think there are other thingslike fear of setting goals, that
I might not get it right and Imight be ridiculed for it, or
the accountability that comesalong with setting goals that I
might not get it right and Imight be ridiculed for it, or
the accountability that comesalong with setting goals and
having someone really hold meaccountable makes me
uncomfortable as well.
But ultimately, I think thatidea behind perfection is one of

(02:58):
the things that keeps me fromsetting and achieving goals at
times.
Very specific is the reason forthis podcast.
Right here, I've been workingwith my strategist at Brand
Builders Group on improving theperformance of the Uncommon
Leader podcast, and one of thegoals that I had for 2025 was to

(03:19):
double the number of episodesthat I recorded in 2024.
Now it's a weekly podcast.
That means I was going to haveto do two a week.
Here we are really early Marchand I'm hitting the record
button for the first time, theperfection that sat in my mind
was that I wanted things perfectbefore I hit that record button
.
I wanted the name of it to beperfected and I wanted the

(03:42):
content to be perfected and Iwanted to know, should I have it
be an interview format or someother, when really what I needed
to do was just to hit thebutton and get started.
It reminds me when I thinkabout that, hit the button, hit
that record button.
It reminds me of one of myfavorite scenes from the movie
Rush Hour, where Chris Tuckerwas there and soon Lee was the

(04:07):
girl who had a bomb strapped toher chest and the villain was in
the same room, about 15 milesaway with a button to explode
that bomb that was on the jacketthat she was wearing and Chris
Tucker Trish Tucker in the show.
He brought her close to her,the villain, and said go ahead,
push the button.
And then, even soon, lee gotinto it and said, yeah, push the

(04:29):
damn button.
Well, that's something thatkeeps in my mind when I get
things started like that.
And even my coach said John,just push the daggone button,
push record and get started.
Don't worry about perfection,just keep practicing and you'll
get there.
So here we are today,ultimately, and we got started.
But that was a little bit ofdigression there in terms of
talking about the movie.
Let's talk about goal settingjust a little bit.

(04:51):
I know that you've heard many ofthe listeners of the Uncommon
Leader podcast have heard thisacronym SMART specific,
measurable, action-oriented,realistic and time-based.
But I'm here to suggest to youjust a little bit of a
modification to that acronym.
My Boston friends willappreciate this just a little
bit, but imagine if they weresaying SMART.

(05:12):
It comes out as SMOT wickedSMOT is how they start to talk
about it, and I'm suggestingthat's how we spell the SMART
acronym.
Going forward, it's stillspecific, it's still measurable,
it's still action-oriented andtime-based, but we're going to
replace the R with an H and thatH, rather than being realistic,
that H, is going to be hard.

(05:34):
We're going to choose somethinghard or we're ultimately going
to say something to the effectof heaven.
We're going to need your helpto get that done.
We're called to be uncommonleaders.
We're not called to setrealistic goals.
Realistic is not what it isthat changed the world.
It's hard that changes theworld and sometimes that

(05:54):
requires intervention, if youwill, with some of the goals
that we set.
Look, I think about this and Ithink about a book I just read,
just finished up, by CraigGroeschel Bold Prayers and he
asked a question.
Inside of that book he said ifall the prayers that you prayed
over the last week were to beanswered, how would the world be

(06:14):
different?
And I just thought that was agreat challenging question.
I want to use a question likethat just in terms of your goal
setting.
If all of the goals that you'veset have come to fruition for
you, how would your world be adifferent place?
Would it be something that isbetter?
Would it be something that'sjust better for you?
We're really looking to make animpact on the world and not

(06:35):
just a realistic impact.
So I want to challenge you toreally change that up to the
letter H when you think aboutthat.
How would things look differentif you were to achieve a hard
goal?
Some of the things I think aboutis even when we're setting
those goals.
Imagine, if you will let's goback to a fitness goal setting a

(06:58):
goal of losing weight.
A realistic goal for losingweight might be to lose three
pounds in four months.
A hard goal might be to lose 15pounds in four months, if you
don't achieve that goal of 15pounds, you only get to 12.
Did you really lose?
I don't think so.
That's the way to look at thisin terms of understanding those
hard goals.
Even when you don't get there,you'd normally get farther than

(07:20):
you would if you just set arealistic goal.
So what is it about those hardgoals?
Look, if I bring a scripturalreference and it was something
that was in my daily readingtoday was Matthew 28, 19, the
great commission.
Ultimately, when Jesus calledthe disciples, he said we are to
go and make disciples of allnations.
He didn't say a few nations, hedidn't say some nations.

(07:45):
He didn't say your city, hesaid all nations.
That's a hard goal.
There were 12 of them,ultimately that were set out to
make that happen.
It was not going to be an easygoal whatsoever.
So you need to be a little bituncomfortable in your chair.
I think about this in astandpoint of when you set a
realistic goal.
You're like, yeah, I couldachieve that, no problem, we'll

(08:07):
get that thing done anytime.
But when I set a hard goal, Igot to sit forward and pay
attention.
I got to step outside mycomfort zone and get into my
learning zone.
I have to learn a new skill.
I have to look and get a coachto get something like that done.
I have to make a change that Iwouldn't have to make
necessarily if I were justsetting a realistic goal.

(08:30):
So, just to summarize that SMOTgoal specific, measurable,
action-oriented, hard andtime-based.
Those are the things thatyou're looking for.
Hey, once you've set thosegoals, how are you going to make
sure that you get to success?
I'm here to tell you I gotthree tips for you there as well
to make sure you get there.
First of all, let's write themdown.
Okay, those who write downtheir goals are 80% more likely,

(08:53):
based on a study, to achievetheir goals.
I think that's a powerfulstatement.
Just to write them down and seethem on a regular basis.
Second thing I suggest is ascorecard.
I'm competitive, just like theafter show was kind of named
after my favorite sport offootball.
When they have the collegefootball countdown or whatever
it is after the show that goesover the highlights and talks
about the great plays of the day.

(09:13):
You need to set a scoreboard tosee if you're winning or not
and can tell how you need tomake adjustments if you're not
winning at the time.
And then the third tip share itwith somebody else.
That's going to help you tohold accountable.
Don't keep those goals insideyourself, but share them, and
for me, that's something that Iwant to talk about here right

(09:34):
now.
With this podcast, I'm going toneed your help.
I've been talking about one ofthe things I want to do is
double the number of episodes,and that's really about impact.
And for me to do that, what I'mreally looking to do is have
more listeners, more viewers ofthis podcast to make it happen.
So I'm here to state a goaltoday that I'm going to shoot

(09:55):
for it's 1 million downloads andviews by the turn of the decade
.
It's specific, it's measurable,it's action oriented.
It's going to require me to doa lot of different things.
It's going to require me togrow and grow my skills as a
podcaster.
It's time-based, it's way outthere, no doubt about it, but
it's a huge, it's a hard, it's agoal that's going to require
intervention to get that done,and that intervention, a lot of

(10:16):
times, is you.
If you enjoy the Uncommon Leaderpodcast, I encourage you to
share it, I encourage you tosubscribe to it and I encourage
you to take just a coupleminutes to go out and write a
review.
A five-star review is veryhelpful.
All these things help us to getit in the hands of more
listeners and more viewers.
And look, it's really not aboutme and about the million
downloads.

(10:36):
That's going to be the mostimportant topic.
It's about the impact that thatmillion downloads is going to
have.
A million listeners are goingto be impacted by some of the
messages that come out of theinterviews that I have with
uncommon leaders like yourself,and also that come out some of
the tips that I share, that Ioften share with my clients.
I know that's going to be a bigpart of it, so I hope you've

(10:56):
enjoyed the first after show.
I hope you get a chance toshare.
Please do.
It's something I think is goingto be really cool in the future
.
Oftentimes I'll finish up with aquote or a scriptural verse
that might leave you inspired.
And, in light of the settinghard goals this week, I want to
share from a poem that isattributed to Devin Bro, and I
think I'm saying his name right.

(11:16):
I'm not even really sure, but Ithink it's something that
really is cool.
It says starts off marriage ishard, divorce is hard.
Choose your heart.
Obesity is hard.
Being fit is hard.
Choose your heart.
Being in debt is hard.
Being financially disciplinedis hard.
Choose your heart.

(11:38):
Communication is hard.
Not communicating is hard.
Choose your hard.
Life will never be easy.
It will always be hard, but wecan choose our hard.
Pick wisely.
Hey Uncommon Leaders, thanksfor spending a little bit of
time with me today.
Now let's go out and make ithappen.