What Are Realistic Goals?
Be careful here. I’m not talking about safe, non-challenging, non-growth goals that are easily achievable. What I mean here is not lying to yourself to feel like your accomplishing something.
What Success Have You Had In The Past?
This is a key element to goal setting. Again, I’m not saying set goals that stretch you no more than you’ve stretched before. No. What I’m saying is if you’re struggling to earn $1000.00 a month how does setting a goal of $10,000.00 by the end of this month prepare you to grow? I don’t mean that you won’t surprise and amaze yourself at what you can accomplish once you set your clear mind to it. I do mean that your brain keeps track of what you’ve done and while you can fool it to some extent, it knows when you’re full of it.
I recently listened to a Entrepreneur On Fire podcast with Gideon Shalwick. If you’ve not heard of him before, Gideon has worked with many top names including Yaro Starak to either produce video products or help improve their video presence. He says that setting goals too large initially can set you up for failure which creates negative momentum in your business. He says your goal should always be positive momentum. I agree with him completely.
Your Brain Knows The Difference
Let’s use struggling for $1000.00/month as an example. OK, so you know you want to get to $10,000.00/month and that’s in your long-term plans. Your brain knows what you’ve been doing and the success you’ve had with it. If you give it some ridiculously optimistic goal it knows right away you’re not serious. All the positive self-talk in the world will not convince it differently. It’s perfectly willing to go outside its comfort zone but it knows when you’re just blowing smoke.
The Good News
The good news is that you CAN grow your accomplishments incrementally and give your brain more evidence that you really do believe you’ll get to $10,000.00/month. As you grow your business and abilities, it begins to believe bigger and bigger projections. When setting short-term goals you have to be careful not to push it too far. Believe me, I’ve seen what happens when I set a goal I “totally believe I can do” but that goes WAY beyond what I’ve just recently accomplished. Frustration and lack of clear focus. Why? Because your brain will soon convince you that you’re crazy and then you’re just fighting with yourself instead of planning and executing your goal.
Just To Be Clear
I believe we are all incredibly gifted beings and that our confidence is usually the number one impediment to success. I also think we CAN accomplish WAY more than we think we can. That’s why I urge people to take a hard look at where they want to be in 5 or 10 years and work backwards. Further, failure is definitely a part of entrepreneurial success. Failure WILL happen plenty if you’re growing. I only suggest here that you don’t purposely set yourself up for it by trying to fool your brain into believing something you really don’t. Does that make sense?
What about you? Have you gotten stoked about a goal only to see it crumble? Have you tried successfully to hack your mind into thinking you can accomplish a goal WAY beyond your current status? If so, have you been able to do it repeatedly? I’d love to hear your feedback and insights.
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