My “Crazy” Goal that No One Thinks I Should Set
I want to make a certain yearly income by the time I turn 30.
On the surface, this isn’t that crazy. Most people have similar goals.
But the goal I have is triple the amount most people my age would set. Maybe even higher.
I have chosen this goal for a number of reasons:
- I believe I can reach it, because online business is adaptable and it coincides with how my mind works.
- The better I get at what I do and the better service I provide, the more money I will make.
- Even if I fall short of reaching this goal, I will still attain something higher than if I had set my sights lower.
I came up with an analogy when trying to explain this to someone the other day.
The analogy expands on number 3.
The Analogy: Raising the Goal Posts
Imagine you’re a field goal kicker in American football. You’re trying to break the record for the highest field goal ever achieved. (I know kickers don’t care about how high they kick the ball, but this is what I’m going with.)
Let’s say the current record is set at 70 feet. The highest you have ever kicked a field goal is 50 feet, so you’ve got a ways to go.
Like all goals, you can set your goal at any height you want to. It’s your decision.
You can set it at 65 feet, and hopefully surpass the record. You can set it at 70 feet, giving you an even target. You can set it at 75 feet, so if you don’t hit 75, you will still have 5 feet of leeway.
But why not just overshoot it entirely? Why not go for 80, 90, 100 feet?
The only thing stopping you from setting that goal is yourself.
You may worry about other people saying that it’s “crazy,” that it’s not “realistic,” and that you should lower it to something more attainable.
You may think that if you don’t reach your lofty goal, you’ll feel worse than if you set a lower one.
You may simply think that it’s impossible. That it’s physically impossible to kick a ball that high, so you might as well not even try.
Guess what? It’s all in your head. None of it is real.
I think everyone should take their current goals and ramp them up a notch. I have a number of reasons for this.
- If you set your goal at 90 feet, your mind processes the steps and the effort it will take to reach that goal in a different way than if you set it at 70.
- You will naturally put in the extra work needed to help you surpass the previous record (or your previous goal).
- If you fall short of 90, you are much more likely to kick the ball higher than 70 feet than if you set your goal lower.
- Setting your goals higher than you think you can realistically reach naturally causes you to alter your habits. You start becoming someone who can actually attain the higher goal, rather than someone who can only attain the lower one.
- You can use the negativity from the people around you as motivation. The naysayers and pessimists who think you should lower your expectations, projecting their insecurities about their own achievements (or lack thereof) onto you – you can use it all as fuel to power yourself closer and closer to what you want to achieve. And it will make achieving it that much sweeter.
- You will also become an example, a role model, that these things are possible. It’s possible to break through self-defeating mindsets in search of your true potential. In this way, you can help other people do the same thing.
Whatever your goals are right now, take out a piece of paper and separate it into two columns. (Yes, we’re doing a goal-setting exercise.)
And look what I’ve got for ya. A goal-setting template, complete with spaced-out boxes for typing in your goals. Download it right here instantly, free of charge ;).
The first column will be your current goals. The second will be a ramped up version of them.
Now, I want you to do this:
Take each goal and double it.
If it’s monetary, double the money.
If it’s growing your network, double the number of people you want to connect with.
If you want to have a product developed by the end of the year, cut that time in half (effectively, doubling the speed and efficiency at which you will work on it.)
Ramp those things up just past the point of “crazy and impossible to reach.”
Once you have completed them, send me an email telling me how far you surpassed the goals sitting in the first column.
Thoughts and Takeaways
I understand that feeling worse for not reaching your higher goal (even if you surpass your lower one) is a legitimate concern.
We have an innate drive to do what we say we are going to do. I believe psychology calls it the commitment and consistency principle.
The solution is to place less emphasis on the goal itself, and more emphasis on the results from setting that higher goal.
For instance, say you set your goal at 90, but you kicked the ball 80 feet high. You broke the previous record of 70, but you may still feel bad about not reaching what you were aiming for.
The mindset that you cultivated by setting your goal at 90 is what helped you surpass the previous record. Now, forget about that goal, and focus on the results. What were the results?
You kicked that thing 80 feet into the air, surpassing the previous record by 10 feet. That’s what you should place your emphasis on now.
With the specific goals you set, and the ones you ramp up, use the goals as a motivator for building the habits that will help you reach your potential.
Once you have put in all of the work, and achieved what you have achieved, forget about the goal you set and focus on the results you got.
I can almost guarantee your results will be higher than your previous goals.
And all you had to do was tweak your horizons.
What do you think of this mindset? Do you think it would be effective? Let’s talk about it in the comments section below.
(And if you want the inside scoop on new articles, check out the box below and sign up for my weekly newsletter.)
Leave a Reply