Set Challenging Goals

Benjamin Franklin once said, "All things are easy to Industry; all things are difficult to Sloth." It's challenging to do the impossible because it takes hard work. This may be another common rationalization as to why something is impossible. For decades, it was impossible to run a mile in less than four minutes. However, hard-working athletes have been disproving this impossibility since 1954.

Lazy, slothful people are quick to label something as impossible to avoid having to do it. "It's impossible for humans ever to fly," "It's impossible for women to fly," "It's impossible to find a cure for polio," or the more realistic, "It's impossible to double our sales next quarter." Maybe one of the best interview questions you can ask when selecting new workers is this: "Can you tell me about a time when you did the impossible?"

Excerpted from Ben Franklin's 12 Rules of Management