Get D.U.M.B.! The Value of Unattainable Goals, authored by Dustin Wax of Stepcase Lifehack, exhorts us to create Dangerously Unattainable, Monstrously Big goals. Goals that are audacious and set us up for failure. I worked in the corporate world where yearly goals were Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, and Tangible/Time-bound, in other words, S.M.A.R.T. In everyday work, applying these criteria is a highly effective way of ensuring that the goals are good ones and are likely to deliver results. However, when these criteria are used to set goals for innovation, they can spell failure. The dumb thing about S.M.A.R.T. goals is they thwart breakthrough innovations.
Dustin’s point, however, is about risk-taking. S.M.A.R.T. goals don’t stretch your creativity, imagination and inventiveness beyond what is currently known or invented. The greatest successes are the result of the greatest risks.
“Failure is the foundation of success, and the means by which it is achieved.” Lao Tzu
What if we set D.U.M.B. goals to solve worldwide problems like climate change, the Great Pacific Garbage Patch or alternative energy sources? What would happen if we encouraged the kind of thinking where anything is possible?
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Welcome to Verda Vivo. My name is Daryl Warner Laux.
I like DUMB goals, as a matter of facts, I am sometimes really DUMB myself….
So yeah, I’ll ride with you on those goals. let’s work our way out of this mess and let’s go to Mars in the 21st century !
Wow, now that’s a DUMB goal! I think we need to stretch ourselves and our imagination to resolve our problems and create the kind of world we all can live in sustainably. ~ Daryl
concerning Mars… I am reading the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson where people are going there by the 2030s and colonize it by mid 22nd century. very interesting and fantastic sci-fi…
back to my comment: let us solve the mess we are in right now. If in 10 years we are well on our way of doing this, we will see about Mars…. ^^
Happy new year’s eve Daryl. I ain’t doing anything this year. will be for next one I guess