Realistic Goals Never Changed A Thing

“When you set giant, unrealistic goals, the delta between the actions you’re currently taking and the actions you would need to take to reach that giant goal become glaringly obvious.”
—Tom Noske (in this Instagram post)

If you’re setting goals for the new year, consider setting large ones. Consider setting goals much larger than you think you’re capable of. 

Chances are, you aren’t setting a goal because you’re particularly excited about reaching it. Finishing a marathon leaves you sweaty, sore, and tired. You’re setting goals because you’re excited about becoming the kind of person capable of achieving that goal. The training process to finish a marathon transforms you into a person who exercises regularly and accomplishes difficult things. 

When we set goals, we usually try to stretch our current capacity a little further. If I post a video once every two weeks, but my new goal is to post one video every single week, that merely stretches my current workflow a little more. I’ll use the same system and try to crank up the motivation. But if I commit to posting twice per day, it becomes quite clear that my current system won’t support that. It forces me to completely rebuild my schedule, process, and motivation system. 

We set goals to become better versions of ourselves. Huge goals force us to rebuild our systems, which helps us achieve the identities we really want.