Two Areas of Pain

Withdrawals from the “Personal Integrity Account”

When we achieve our goals, we make deposits into our personal integrity account but when we don’t achieve our set goals, we make withdrawals from the same. Deposits increase our confidence in ourselves and our abilities while withdrawals decrease our confidence.

Ladders Against the Wrong Wall

Accomplishing goals can be just as painful as failing to achieve goals. You may achieve a goal but realize that the goal was not what you wanted. This story in the book perfectly captures the cost of wrong goals and focusing on the goal of one of your roles over your overall success in all roles that are important to you.

‘Several years ago, a man announced to his friends and neighbors that his goal for the year was to earn a million dollars. He was an entrepreneur who believed, “Give me a good idea and I can sell a million.” He developed and patented a state-of-the-art recreational product, and then drove around the country selling it.

Occasionally he would take one of his kids with him on the road for a week or so. His wife complained to him about taking the kids, saying, “When they come back, they stop saying their prayers and doing their homework. They just party the whole week. Don’t take the kids if you aren’t going to help them do the things they ought to be doing.” Well, at the end of the year, the man announced that he had met his goal: he made a million dollars. Shortly after, however, he and his wife divorced and his kids developed a bad relationship with him. This man was focused on a single goal and measured everything against it. But he failedto count the total cost. That million dollars cost him a lot more than it was worth.’

(story changed slightly to avoid a triggering sentence)