I've always had an ambivalent relationship with goals. I don't like goals that feel like checkpoints on a treadmill. They make you reach for a million dollars in revenue, celebrate for a second, and then turn the chase to five million the minute after. No thanks. But specific, material goals aren't the only kind you can set.

Here's a goal I remember setting that wasn't like that. I remember seeing Kent Beck -- the creator of eXtreme Programming and author of my favorite programming style guide of all time --  on the conference stage at JAOO 2003. I was mesmerized by Kent's command of the material and the audience. And I remember setting a goal of becoming as capable as that in the art of public speaking on technical topics.

I also remember setting the goal of participating in the 24 Hours of Le Mans after just a few years of getting behind the wheel of a racing car for the first time. I had barely become proficient enough to compete safely against other drivers, but had already progressed enough from the first time on track that I could extrapolate the trajectory. And have faith that I was going to get there.

Now there's a fine line between goals that are ambitious and goals that are delusional. If I had set a goal to be the fastest driver in the world at age 30, after only earning my driver's license at 25, I would have been delusional. Those odds wouldn't just be long, they'd be impossible. And I don't like to start a pursuit in vain.

Same too, if, after watching Kent Beck on stage, I'd set a goal to repeat the feat the next year. That would have been delusional. Not only does it take time and practice and skill to become that good of a public speaker, I also needed to become knowledgeable enough about my domain to have something interesting to talk about.

But in both cases, the racing and the speaking, I intuitively knew that it wasn't just about the destination. If it was, there'd probably be many shortcuts I could have taken. But I wanted to take the long road. For what it would make of me. Jim Rohn expresses this sentiment beautifully:

It was not about winning a race, but about becoming a racer. It was not about giving a speech, but about becoming a speaker. Think about what you'd like to become more often than thinking about what you'd like to get.