{"id":25283,"date":"2021-02-01T19:56:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T23:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=25283"},"modified":"2026-04-24T16:27:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T20:27:51","slug":"focus-on-the-wildly-important","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on the Wildly Important Goals to Succeed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What does it mean to &#8220;focus on the wildly important&#8221; in 4DX? How does this focus set you up for successfully executing on your goals?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Focus on the wildly important&#8221; is the core of the first discipline in <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-4-disciplines-of-execution\/preview\" rel=\"nofollow\">The 4 Disciplines of Execution<\/a><\/em>. You set <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wildly-important-goals\/\">wildly important goals<\/a>, and you have to remain focused on them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-avoid-distractions\/\">learn how to focus<\/a> on the wildly important goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><em>Editor\u2019s note: This article is part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/professional\/success-guide\/\">Shortform\u2019s guide to success<\/a>. If you like what you read here, there\u2019s plenty more to check out in the guide!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-discipline-1-focus-on-the-wildly-important\"><strong>Discipline 1: Focus<\/strong> on the Wildly Important<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The key of this discipline is to focus on the <em>wildly important <\/em>and only that.<\/strong> Genetically, human beings work best when they do <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-one-thing\/\">one thing at a time<\/a>. Multitasking overloads our brains, and when our brains are overtaxed, they slow down. <strong>As you practice multitasking, you actually get worse at thinking and problem-solving.<\/strong> As a result, it\u2019s physically impossible to be most effective when concentrating on too much at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can see the harmful <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/why-is-multitasking-bad\/\">effects of multitasking<\/a> in the workplace too. When you have too <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hub\/professional\/work\/productivity\/multiple-goals\/\">many goals<\/a>, you get hit with the law of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/what-is-hedonic-adaptation\/\">diminishing returns<\/a>. If you have four to ten goals, you might achieve one or two. If you have more than ten, you won\u2019t achieve any of them. <strong>Too many or unfocused goals also make the whirlwind worse.<\/strong> What might be five goals at the top of an organization cascades down to many smaller goals at the bottom of the hierarchy, creating too much to focus on. Also, conventional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/organizational-goals\/\">organizational goals<\/a> often lack measurability, focus, and a deadline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Therefore, when you want to create change, choose one, at max three, very important goals to work toward.<\/strong> Call them <em>Wildly Important Goals (WIGs)<\/em> to make it easy for you and staff to remember that they\u2019re top priority. These goals should not come from the whirlwind, and this discipline doesn\u2019t apply to the whirlwind. (The whirlwind is made up of the essential day-to-day activities that keep your organization running. If you ignored parts of it, your organization wouldn\u2019t survive.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Additionally, this discipline <strong>helps you more clearly communicate your strategy to your organization.<\/strong> Choosing a WIG forces you to translate strategy from ideas to a specific outcome. When there are only a few specific outcomes, it\u2019s easy for your staff to differentiate what\u2019s goal and what\u2019s whirlwind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What does it mean to &#8220;focus on the wildly important&#8221; in 4DX? How does this focus set you up for successfully executing on your goals? &#8220;Focus on the wildly important&#8221; is the core of the first discipline in The 4 Disciplines of Execution. You set wildly important goals, and you have to remain focused on them. Keep reading to learn how to focus on the wildly important goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43,30],"tags":[199],"class_list":["post-25283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","category-work","tag-the-4-disciplines-of-execution","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Focus on the Wildly Important Goals to Succeed - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the first discipline of 4DX, you have to learn to focus on the wildly important. You can&#039;t multitask because focus is critical.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Focus on the Wildly Important Goals to Succeed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the first discipline of 4DX, you have to learn to focus on the wildly important. You can&#039;t multitask because focus is critical.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-01T23:56:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T20:27:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/48-laws-of-power-law-23.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"765\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"505\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rina Shah\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rina Shah\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d07435826f13a8f422d5d333dceac287\"},\"headline\":\"Focus on the Wildly Important Goals to Succeed\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T23:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T20:27:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\"},\"wordCount\":417,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/48-laws-of-power-law-23.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"The 4 Disciplines of Execution\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Self-Improvement\",\"Work\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/\",\"name\":\"Focus on the Wildly Important Goals to Succeed - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/focus-on-the-wildly-important\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/48-laws-of-power-law-23.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-02-01T23:56:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T20:27:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"In the first discipline of 4DX, you have to learn to focus on the wildly important. 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