December 15. “Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.” (Ronald E. Osborn)

The other day I wrote about the idea of setting goals for the new year. At work I will be also setting my annual objectives in January as well. It is a time of year for setting the bar so that I will be able to measure my progress through the year.

One of the things that we discuss at length when it comes to work objectives is how to set the bar in a way that will be challenging and promote growth. Every year the bar is set higher for all of us, we are expected to do more, and reach higher levels than the year before. What was last year’s stretch is this year’s baseline. I could be a rock star at work for a year, and achieve higher than anyone in my group, but if in the next year I only repeat the same amount, then I am sure to be caught and passed by others who are more ambitious, and whose growth has caught up to my level. It’s simply not good enough to repeat the same level and expect to be considered among the elite.

This quote supports that notion. It reminds me that if I am comfortable and satisfied with where I am, and I am not willing to stretch beyond what I have already mastered and achieved, then I will become stagnant. To grow, to achieve at a high level, I must do things I have never done before.

In this season of goal and objective setting I am reflecting on the need in my life to set the bar in such a way that I must do new things, and learn to do them well, to achieve at a high level.