I touched on goal setting in an earlier article published in this blog: Reality bites. In the article I described the importance of creating goals grounded in reality, and explained how to use objective measures as a way of monitoring your progress.
The reality-based approach to goal setting described in the above article is vital to the success of any goal you set out to achieve, and introduces some of the concepts I expand on here.
The standard approach delivers standard results
The standard approach to goal setting is to set goals that are “realistic”, but that you still consider to be a stretch. That is, to set a challenging goal that you know you can achieve. Here’s an example of this, taken from a goal-setting website…
It’s important to set goals that you can achieve. You may be naive in setting very high goals. You might not appreciate either the obstacles in the way, or understand quite how many skills you must master to achieve a particular level of performance.
In my opinion, this is bad advice.
The unspoken assumption here is that you know what you’re capable of achieving in advance of trying. The question I have is, how do you know this? And what if you’re wrong?
Cutting yourself off at the knees
The standard approach to goal setting is fatally flawed. It has you place a limit on what’s possible by insisting that you rely only on what you already know. The result will be a goal that only delivers more of what you already have.
The standard approach doesn’t give you the chance to discover new ideas or ways of doing things. It doesn’t force you to sit down and think. It asks nothing of you, other than activity.
The standard approach doesn’t give you access to the greatness that exists within. If your desire is to perform at an above average level, you need to abandon the standard approach to goal setting. There’s a much better way to set goals. This new approach is designed to deliver results way beyond average.
The source of greatness
The source of greatness is great goals. History’s great men and women are ordinary people who set “impossible” goals, and went on the achieve them.
In this article, I recommend that you set a goal for yourself that you have no idea how to achieve. A goal that has other people shaking their heads in disbelief when you tell them about it. A goal that makes you weak at the knees when you contemplate it.
A goal so tough, you’re going to want to cross the street if you see it coming your way!
But won’t it all end in tears?
The immediate objection to this type of goal setting is that the goal-setter is highly likely to fail. The bigger the goal, the worse the failure will be. Professional goal-setters would prefer that you experienced the joy of success rather than the pain of failure. They want to protect you from the inevitable disappointment of failure, in case it puts you off setting any more goals.
As you’re reading Online Success Magazine, I assume you’re interested in achieving results well above average. I assume that you’re not interested in living the dull gray life that most people seem content to put up with.
This article isn’t about being average. This article is about the source of greatness, which has its origin in the goals you set for yourself.
Take any great person from history, and imagine he or she had set the kind of safe goals recommended by professional goal-setters. If some great historical figure had played safe in this way, he or she wouldn’t be a great historical figure from history. And you’d be thinking about someone else right now!
Any great goal brings with it the possibility of two extreme outcomes: spectacular success, or dismal failure. The possibility exists that it could all end in tears. You may not achieve your goal.
The question you need to ask yourself is: Does it matter?
Does it matter that you set a goal to earn $1 million in 30 days, and didn’t achieve it? Will you feel sad? Perhaps. Will you be emotionally crushed? Maybe. Will you feel foolish? Possibly. Will others think you foolish? Probably.
The original question is still valid: Does it matter?
The emotions we all experience during failure are nothing more than an attempt by our brains to give a contextual meaning to the chemical reactions going on in our body.
The point is, you don’t have to be a slave to your emotions. You can act in spite of them. It’s possible you’ll end up looking and feeling foolish. This needn’t stop you from setting impossible goals, and acting on them.
Do I really mean impossible?
No, not impossible in a ‘breaking the laws of physics’ kind of way. Some things are absolutely impossible. Other things only seem impossible, but can be achieved.
It’s impossible to walk through a solid concrete wall without breaking it. If your goal is to do so, you’re not going to achieve it. To do so requires that well established scientific theories about the nature of matter be completely and utterly wrong (they’re not).
It’s not easy for most people to earn 10 times the national income in 30 days, but it can be done. And you don’t have the break the laws of physics to do so.
When I say that it’s OK to set impossible goals, what I’m really saying is that it’s OK to set very difficult goals. I’m not advocating that you try to do things that are actually impossible.
Why set difficult goals?
I assume that you want to achieve great things with your Internet business. If you’re going to do so, you’ll need to set difficult goals for yourself. But there’s another reason why setting difficult goals works so well…
It forces you to get creative.
The following example helps illustrate what I mean. Imagine that two people have the same vague desire to make a lot of money in business on the Internet. Both are currently earning $500/month from their Internet business. Both set themselves an income goal.
Bob’s goal is to earn $1,000 per month within 5 months. He needs to increase his sales by $100/month to achieve his goal.
Brenda’s goal is to earn $5,000 per month within 5 months. She needs to increase her sales by $900/month to achieve her goal.
Bob realizes that he will reach his goal by increasing his advertising by $20 each month. He can easily fund this extra expense from the extra money he will make. It’s a stretch, and involves some risk, but it’s not too difficult for him to imagine how me might achieve it.
Brenda has no idea how she’s going to reach her goal. It’s more than a stretch…it seems impossible! But she knows that it’s not impossible because lots of people earn $5,000/month on the Internet. Brenda is forced to think a lot harder than Bob if she’s going to achieve her goal.
Brenda probably doesn’t know enough to achieve her goal. The fact is, she’s almost certainly going to have to get ideas from somewhere. If she’s smart, she’ll visit online marketing forums, marketing websites, brainstorm ideas, talk to other webmasters, and look for books on marketing. She’ll exploit every resource available to her. If she’s going to reach her goal, she’ll have no choice but to do this.
What Brenda is forced to do will have her become more successful than Bob, even if she fails to achieve her goal.
Bob is playing safe, slowly growing his business using the same old techniques. Eventually, those techniques will no longer deliver any more growth. They’ll no longer be an effective way for Bob to grow his business, and he’ll be stuck in a rut with no way out.
Brenda will also find that her ideas only work for a period of time. Eventually, she’ll find it harder to grow her business using her existing ideas. The difference is, Brenda is used to thinking creatively. She forced herself to be creative from the start. She knows what needs to be done to get herself out of any rut she finds herself in.
Assuming Brenda keeps at this long enough, eventually she’ll have a breakthrough and come up with something totally revolutionary. A revolutionary breakthrough may well deliver her goal in a few short weeks!
Dealing with failure
Anyone who sets big goals can expect failure. It’s happens to everyone, no matter how experienced they are. I’m not saying you should waste your valuable time dwelling on it. I’m saying you shouldn’t be surprised when it happens.
Don’t let it upset you. If that’s not possible, then don’t let it stop you. Keep on setting difficult goals.
I suggest you treat goal setting as a game. If you lose at Monopoly, do you deem yourself a failure and refuse to play another game because the defeat is too humiliating to bear? I hope not!
Achieving your goal should be important to you, but not all consuming. Don’t take it as some kind of personal indictment against you if you don’t achieve it. A goal is nothing more than a statement of intent. If you don’t get there, so what? You’re no different to other great people of history, setting out to achieve something great, and enduring many failures along the way.
Failure comes with the territory. It’s the cost of greatness. It’s the price you pay, and will soon be forgotten as you refocus your efforts on your next goal.
One man’s failure…
Failure to reach a goal can look like spectacular success to an objective third party.
Bob and Brenda are actually real people (names and goals changed of course). They did set income goals. Bob succeed beyond his wildest dreams, and easily achieved his goal. Brenda failed miserably and only got half-way to her target.
In other words, after 5 months Bob was making $1,000/month and Brenda was earning $2,500/month.
In terms of their goals, Bob succeeded and Brenda failed. But if I hadn’t told you what their goals were, who would you think the most successful?
This is another reason for setting a wildly unachievable goal. If you miss it, even by a large amount, you’re still going to be better off than if you achieve a safe goal.
Ask yourself, would you prefer to succeed in achieving 100% of a goal of $30,000/year? Or fail by achieving only 10% of a goal of $1 million/year? Personally, I’d rather be a failure earning $100,000/year than a success earning $30,000!
Set a massive and uncomfortable goal
Set yourself a massive and uncomfortable goal. Force yourself to think way outside the box, and to use all the resources at your disposal.
Force yourself to ask other people how you might achieve your goal. Seek out people who have already achieved similar goals, and ask them how they did it.
Anything that doesn’t involve breaking the laws of physics is possible. Don’t be stopped simply because you think it impossible.
The source of your own greatness is in the goals you set for yourself. It’s as simple as that.
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Goal setting is very important specially if you want to plan long term.,.,
Goal setting is very important if you want something to be done in a short period of time.
I’d add that goal setting is important no matter what your time frame.
sometimes i am having some problems when setting goals;`’
I’ve been working in the field of internet/affiliate marketing for some years now (not as long as the so called “gurus”), and I’ve found it to be enjoyable as well as challenging with a hint of fickleness, but I’d certainly vouch for it, for those who are in between minds about marketing online. Anyway, excellent post, I picked up a few things as a result of it, cheers.
I was looking for feedback regarding this, independent from the so called expert’s, great job.
good ~ thank you ~
I like this article, thank you for sharing.
You created some clear points there. I looked online for the topic matter and identified most guys will consent with your website.