Set Unachievable Goals

I’m going to do these situps until I reach fatigue. One, two.. ten.. done. Yeah, I guess I’m pretty tired, I’m finished.

I’m going to do these situps until I do fifty. One, two .. ten.. this is kinda tough.. thirty. Impossible to finish, fifteen-twenty second break. Forty.. fifty. Whew, that ...I’m going to do these situps until I reach fatigue. One, two.. ten.. done. Yeah, I guess I’m pretty tired, I’m finished.

I’m going to do these situps until I do fifty. One, two .. ten.. this is kinda tough.. thirty. Impossible to finish, fifteen-twenty second break. Forty.. fifty. Whew, that was a great workout.

The difference between these two parables? In one, I set a number that I had to achieve before finishing. In the other, I set no number at all, and instead let “I feel kinda tired” to set the standard. Naturally, in example #2, I achieved way beyond any amount I set out for in example #1. Yeah, I had to stop for a few seconds to rest because my initial goal was unachievable, but I pushed myself beyond my limits and likely to a point where muscle growth was palpable. That goal set the standard slightly past an immediately achievable strata. If we place this goal 20% past a reasonable strata, we will be happy with our results if we only barely miss the mark. If we set our goals 1000% past and we blunder or tire or can only do five situps, we are left depressed with our own self-worth and am left unmotivated. If we set our goals to be too achievable, we don’t push ourselves and likely will never achieve our true potential.

In the worst case scenario, we never set a goal at all, and likely falter worse.

The lesson I learned from all this? Always have a measurable goal. Always.

This is showcased in the top-two examples, but can easily parallel other facets of life as well. My GPA my first year after junior college, at Victoria University and Chapman University, was a 3.8. The rest of my college career was a slightly above-par 3.2. When I entered college and set my sights at greatness, I would settle for nothing less than a 4.0. I talked to teachers and informed them of my will to achieve this mark and my need to do it. Surely, this reflected in their own perceptions of me and my own work-ethic to achieve it. I did not achieve the mark, but my GPA was nonetheless impressive. When I returned to reality and changed majors to Business Administration and undertook football, I cared less, set no achievement marks, and sure enough, reached my attempts at mediocrity.

I’m sure you can apply this to your own life. Look at where you achieved greatness and decide whether or not you had set out to do so and set the bar at it. When you were mediocre, look at whether you ever decided that something better was out there for you, or that you had ever set a measurable goal to reach. When we set these measurable goals, we achieve and have the ability to push past the mental barriers that often tax us. Try attaching them to things you might never think about measuring, like studying duration, new things learned in a day, certain number of jobs applied for, exact time spent dedicated to each job your apply for, calories consumed, compliments given out, and etc.

To track your goals, setup a spreadsheet. Use your blackberry for a mobile goal-checker. Tell your friends about what you hope to achieve. If you do all this, achieving greatness, no matter what microcosm of life you hope to achieve it in, is more than probable. It’s likely.