Nolan grew up in a family of hunters and learned how to shoot a rifle at a young age and he felt confident about the rifle shooting test in the ROTC. In Nolan’s words, “during the test, I was in a fox hole waiting for the targets to pop up with a spotter directly behind me keeping track of my hits and misses. When the first target popped up I shot it and it fell over but my spotter said “miss”. I looked back confused. I didn’t want to get too fixated on the spotter’s blatant error so I turned around to get ready to shoot the next target. When the next target popped up, I fired and it fell over. Again I heard “miss” from the spotter. This continued for several targets. Then I heard the conversation between the soldier in the next fox hole and his spotter. The soldier said, “you’ve said I’ve hit every target, but I haven’t fired a single shot.” Nolan then realized he was aiming at the other soldier’s targets and not his own. “I quickly found my targets and knocked down the few remaining targets. As you could guess I didn’t score very well on the test, but the soldier next to me did.” From this experience, Nolan said he learned, “it doesn’t matter how successful we are at hitting targets if they aren’t the right targets.”
So how can we make sure we’re aiming at the right targets? My goal is to share insights that will help you identify the life you want to live and motivate you to do whatever it takes to live that life. In the upcoming months, I’ll share additional insights and research from experts about attainable ways to achieve your goals while balancing your other priorities.