Set Big Goals Or No Goals
While updating my About Me page, I realized something about myself that I hadn’t before. I realized that I’ve been successful at achieving my goals when they were BIG, but fail much more often when they weren’t.
In my 3rd yr of high school I realized that the only way I’d be able to further my education past a 2-year college was by getting some sort of scholarship. So for the next 4 years I worked my tail off and with a little luck, won a full-tuition scholarship to WJU. Next was to pay off all my school loans within 2 years. By living below our means, my wife and I saved every cent we made and paid off the loan. Then I set a goal of making a certain salary before I was 30 and at age 29 finally made that goal. I was successful when my goals were big and I believed in myself.
I’ve also set many goals such as reading more, getting more sleep, working less, eating healthier, working out, etc, and have not even come close to achieving these. If you look again, you’ll see that these goals read like a typical list of New Year’s resolutions. And we all know that for most people, their New Year’s resolution is out the window just a few months into the year.
So what do these failures all have in common? Their goals were “small”. You’re probably thinking there is nothing “small” about eating healthier. But by small I mean so trivial that your mind can too easily understand and therefore disregard the concept. Trivial enough that by not achieving the goal, your life won’t significantly change. And you realize this subconsiously. For example, working out in 2009 will improve my quality of life, but not working out won’t make me any less healthier than I was in 2008 (at least not anytime soon). In my experience, although your goals should be realistic, they need to be BIG enough that they “shock” your body and mind when you think about achieving them (or failing). (The same way that using more weight in the gym each week shocks your body to grow.)
I love to think big and set big goals for myself. If you are going to put in any effort, at least make it worthwhile. If you aren’t going to work to achieve it, it doesn’t matter how big or small the goal. Inaction is failure, plain and simple. My latest goal is to retire in May 2012 at the age of 35. I know, crazy. I don’t even know how I’ll achieve this exactly, but I believe that in the next 3 yrs I’ll figure it out. And if I do fail, it won’t matter since the lessons learned will be invaluable for the rest of my life.
Do you have any BIG goals that you are working on? Are you more successful with your big or small goals?
