Please forgive me if it takes a few sentences for me to find my writing groove today. Like many people across the country (and around the globe) I logged a good fifteen hours in front of the TV this past weekend, taking in the slow drip that is the NFL playoffs. That’s about the same time it would take to watch every sub-titled entrant in a small foreign film festival…if only I were so culturally inclined. While I guiltily enjoyed every minute of my pigskin splurge I’m not sure how beneficial it was for my cognitive well-being. But I’ll persevere, and in the spirit of my NFL heroes “I’ll take it one sentence at a time,” and “Just have to execute.”
I love football, and for the record I’m declaring a new favorite player, one whose team wasn’t fortunate enough to make it into the playoffs (costing their coach his job) – Alec Ingold. Before last week, Ingold wasn’t on my football radar; I’m not so obsessive a fan that I can identify each of the 1,696 players in the league. He came to my attention through a New York Times article outlining his devotion and commitment to goal setting. Before I dive into that, here’s a bit about Mr. Ingold for those of you who, like me, knew little of him before reading these words.
Alec Ingold is an NFL fullback for the Miami Dolphins, a team captain, and a Pro Bowl selection who built his career the hard way, going undrafted out of the University of Wisconsin and earning his place through grit and consistency. Adopted at birth and shaped by early adversity, he has become known not just for performing on the field but for leading off it, as a motivational speaker, author, and mindset coach. Ingold’s work centers on resilience, identity, and the daily processes that turn big intentions into real results (sound familiar – Is it any wonder I wanted to know more?).
In the sections that follow I’ll share portions of Alec’s process and compare them to what I’ve seen as best practices for succeeding with OKRs. On two…ready…break!
Commitment
The goal setting process begins for Alec with a statement of positive self-talk. Here’s what he wrote:
Now, I have to be honest here and tell you I was stumped for several minutes upon seeing this. Don’t Funch? What is funch? I’d never heard that word before and was instantly excited at the possibility of picking up some new goal setting terminology, especially considering it was being delivered courtesy of a professional athlete. Someone who obviously has their ear to the motivation ground and is on top of the evolving culture, including the latest jargon. I could just hear myself at my next keynote, or in front of a group of executives: “Here’s the secret ladies and gentlemen…the most important thing is…don’t funch!” Then I did a Google search on the word – did you? Let’s just hope Alec won’t be “funching” with anyone but his wife.
Of course, it’s not funch up there, it’s flinch! Don’t flinch. For Alec that translates to never going back on the pledge you make to yourself. When things get tough you don’t flinch, you double down on your resilience and commitment.
OKRs implementations will also benefit from a guiding rationale or passionate rallying cry. Every organization should create their own pledge, one they can return to when things inevitably get rocky and people are wondering whether this whole endeavor is worth their precious time, energy, and emotional commitment. Consider this a foundational element of your implementation, the bedrock upon which the entire investment rests.
The Power of Why
Next to all of his goals, Alec jots down a few sentences describing what the goal means and why he wants to accomplish it. This allows him to visualize success and determine how he can move ever closer to its achievement. For Alec the what, why, and how are building blocks to effective goal completion.
I absolutely love this practice! One of the most important questions you can ask yourself upon drafting an OKR is: Why is this important, and why now? How will notching a win on this particular OKR move you closer to executing your unique strategy? Why is now the best time to be pursuing this goal? OKRs should be difficult, and if you’re serious about committing to a hard goal it’s not willpower that will ultimately get you to the finish line, it’s grit and determination born of the knowledge of why the goal is vital for you at this very moment.
Notice that Alec’s “why” also helps him determine how he’ll achieve his goal. An OKR without a solid implementation plan is nothing more than wishful thinking. Every key result should be broken down into its component parts – discrete, specific actions you’ll take over the coming weeks to drive the desired outcome. Those actions become the beating drum of execution as you monitor their completion each and every week, cataloging successes and making course corrections where necessary.
Different Cadences
Alec is very intentional in every aspect of his goal setting regimen, including the practice of using alternative timeframes to maximize overall success. He says, “I try to be as objective as possible with goals as well as creating different lengths of time. I have goals for next month, I have goals for the next quarter of the year, and then I have yearlong goals.” For example, nailing an offseason goal of sixteen percent body fat at two-hundred and thirty-five pounds will help enable him to achieve the regular season target of being active in all seventeen games of the grueling NFL campaign. His routine, and the example of commitment he sets for teammates, will push him ever closer to a long-term goal of building a team culture that wins beyond his contribution.
Best-practice OKR users also recognize that strong execution depends on working across multiple timeframes, not forcing every goal into the same rhythm. While quarterly OKRs often work well because they balance urgency with enough time to make real progress, they’re not a rule, they’re a starting point. High-performing organizations align cadence to how work actually happens: faster cycles when priorities shift quickly, longer cycles when outcomes need time to mature. Many use layered timeframes, setting longer-horizon company objectives annually, while refreshing team-level OKRs quarterly or every four months to combine strategic stability with tactical agility. The core principle is simple: cadence should support focus, learning, and accountability, not become a ritual that teams follow even when it no longer fits how they work.
One Last Huddle
So maybe the real lesson from this weekend isn’t that I “wasted” fifteen hours watching football. It’s that time is always being invested in something, whether we’re conscious about it or not. Alec Ingold is conscious. He decides what his hours are for, then builds systems that make those hours add up to something meaningful. That’s what great OKRs are supposed to do as well: turn intention into structure, and structure into progress. I’ll probably still watch too much football from time to time (it’s a scant 135 hours until the next kickoff!). But if I can be even half as deliberate about my goals as Ingold is about his, then those other hours – the ones off the couch – might just start producing a few more wins of their own.