Goals Are What You Can Control
Last month, I attended a facilitated meeting on strategy and goal setting. The facilitator was really good—curious, kind, sharply dressed, and, unassumingly, the smartest person in the room. After one group session, my team walked up to a whiteboard and shared our big plans: ways we'd make a difference in our communities, how we'd count and compile wins … all the things we'd do.
Instead of high-fiving us, the facilitator told a story.
He used to sell encyclopedias. Door to door. Old school. He'd knock on doors, hope someone would answer, and if he was really lucky, sell some books and cash some checks. All. Day. Long.
He asked us: What should I have considered a successful day?
We offered the obvious answers—doors opened, conversations started, books sold, checks cashed. But he stopped us. In reality, he said, there was only one thing: doors knocked.
You see, he couldn't control who opened the door. He couldn't control who bought encyclopedias. But he could control how many doors he knocked on.
Then he turned it back on us.
What can you control?
It's a deceptively simple question—and one of the most clarifying things you can ask about any goal you set. Here are three things worth keeping in mind:
Own your inputs, not your outcomes. The Stoic philosopher Epictetus—born a slave—identified what he called the "dichotomy of control": some things are up to us, and some things simply are not. Stephen Covey modernized this as the Circle of Influence vs. the Circle of Concern. The principle is the same: a good goal anchors you to what is genuinely yours to do. Doors knocked. Not books sold.
Build a system, not just a scoreboard. James Clear writes in Atomic Habits: "You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems." Goals tell you where you want to go. Systems—your repeated, controllable actions—are what actually get you there. The encyclopedia salesman's system was brutally simple: knock on more doors. What's yours?
Remember your why. The most effective people and organizations don't lead with what they're doing—they lead with why they're doing it. Because here's the thing: when outcomes disappoint (and they will), your "why" is what keeps you at the door … or headed to the next. Purpose is the fuel that makes a process sustainable over the long haul.
A good goal has an action you own, a system behind it, and a reason big enough to keep you showing up—even when no one answers.