Audacious vs. Incremental

“I guarantee if we don’t move that rock, someone will hit it.”  My Dad said these words as he tried to inspire two of his grandsons and me to roll it off the road.  We had been horseback riding in the canyon, and in just an hour since we passed this place on the road, a huge boulder had rolled down.  We had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it.  We realized it was getting dark, so we had to act fast.

Then, a strange thing happened.  Remarkably, we were able to roll this heavy rock over. The first video below shows this herculean feat.  However, the corner of it was still on the road, and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t budge it.  The second video shows our futile attempt and my dad breaking his pick while attempting to do so. Why could we do the bold, hard thing but not the relatively small, easy thing? 

Like many Americans, for the past two years, my New Year’s resolution has been to lose weight.  Last year, I tried a slow and steady approach but made no progress.  After this incident, I decided to take a bold and ambitious approach, and I am doing much better. In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins said: "Big, hairy, audacious goals (BHAGs) create an exhilarating sense of purpose and challenge that pushes organizations to achieve breakthroughs, rather than just incremental progress."