Demonstrating Your Excellence

There's a Russian proverb that says that you can't cross a chasm in two leaps.

Depending upon what you're up against, sometimes the best way to proceed is to go for the whole shebang in one shot.  

Suppose a professional boxer who's had a fairly good record gets a big break. The promoters decide that he gets a shot at the champ. This opportunity sometimes is out of sequence in the boxer's career, but it happens.  If he loses badly, he may not get another chance. If he handles himself well, he might get a second chance, but no one can say when.  

So, his goal becomes clear -- to knock out the champ and to go whole hog for the grandest of goals in his weight category, to be the World Boxing Association champion. The boxer decides to up the ante and go for the gold now, this year, at this fight, coming up in two or three months, not later in his career.

He'll put all his energies into this effort.  Never mind the career path; the time to shine is now.  

Filling in at Quarterback

The same thing happens when one athlete replaces another when the first goes down with an injury. The back-up football quarterback who gets his big chance knows on many levels that he might not get another shot at being the starter. So, he's not content to merely fill in, to merely do a good job, or to merely help his team win.  

Instead, he wants to make a statement. He wants to show that he is major league caliber, that he can run the team from start to finish, win the game, and then go out on the field and do it again next week.  

The same phenomenon occurs when an interim coach is appointed to take the place of the ailing regular coach. While everyone hopes for the best, it is a possibility that the regular coach won't make it back. The interim coach, if he wants to be more than just the substitute, changes his procedures.

He begins working around the clock. He analyzes the team roster. He carefully looks at the team's strengths and weaknesses and at which plays have worked in the past  He talks to the players one-on-one. He analyzes previous game films. In short, he pulls out the stops. He wants to indicate to the top management that whether the head coach comes back or not, he can do the job. Should the head coach come back, the interim coach wants to demonstrate that he ought to be the next coach when the time comes.  

If his organization can't see it, perhaps another organization will take notice. The interim coach has upped his own goals.

The Ivy League

Such sudden ascension is not limited to sports. When the president of a university dies, becomes incapacitated, or is otherwise not able to perform the functions of the job for some period of time, another individual is appointed as acting president.  

During this time, the acting president sets to work immediately so as to convince the Board of Regents that he or she is the logical choice for next president of the university.

Upon reflection, what will you do to "up" your goals even if the timeline accelerates?