The First Of 5 Goal Setting Mistakes Guaranteed To Bore & Sabotage You

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.” — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“I feel like my goal is not big enough,” says Marilyn.

“What makes you feel this way?” I ask.

“Well, here I was, working on this one project. I got into full throttle. I sent the manuscript off to the Illustrator. She’s working on it. Now, I’m at a standstill.”

“What would you rather be doing?” I ask

“I’ve got five more screenplays in the works,” says Marilyn.

“What I should do is form a production company and get them all into play, instead of working on just this one project. I need to amalgamate. This is not big enough to inspire me and keep my momentum going,” answers Marilyn.

Is your goal too small? Too realistic? Not inspiring enough — like, Marilyn’s?

The big mistake: Focusing on the “R” in the S.M.A.R.T goals theory. Why? Realistic goals are boring goals. As in the case of Marilyn, this keeps us small and limits us from dreaming big and creating the things of which we are truly capable. This way of setting goals defies the belief, “Whatever the mind can conceive, it can achieve.”

I once said that quote to one of my managers, who responded with “I hate people telling me “You can do anything if you just set your mind to it.” You can’t do any and everything you want to. If you are a human being, you can’t fly like a bird.” Did I also mention, he was a pessimist.

I could have recounted several instances where people did fly like birds. Of course, they didn’t flap their wings and take off with ease from a tree branch like a bird, but nevertheless they did fly.

The Wright Brothers already debunked that myth. People are now flying like birds inside of airplanes with maximum take-off weights of anywhere between 75 to 450 tons, or more. There has even been a human powered aircraft, the Daedalus. The olympic cyclist, Kanellos Kanellopoulos, flew from Crete to Santorini using the Daedalus, in 1988, as a result of a collaboration between MIT, NASA, the Smithsonian, and the country of Greece. The evidence is housed at Dulles Airport in Terminal B.

For Marilyn and for me, the word “realistic” does not apply to people who want to create big goals. Here is why I believe this.

My own experience has proven to me that realistic goals are boring and much harder to accomplish. They don’t allow me to stretch far enough outside of my comfort zone. I don’t learn enough. I don’t accomplish enough. Most of all, they don’t inspire me.

In Marilyn’s case, it really frightened her to think that she was keeping herself small by the way she was setting her goals. It wasn’t working for her. She needed a different way.

Instead of looking at it as an intellectual exercise, based on previous experience, logic, and current beliefs, she needed to step outside of her current reality and think in a different way.

So, she began asking different questions. What is possible here? What is impossible? What would I do if I were truly courageous? What could I do that would make my heart sing?

When we remove the barrier created by the word, “realistic” as it relates to our goals, this allows us to come up with ideas that we would never have dreamed possible.

My guess is that we would not know the name of the Wright Brothers if they had decided to stay with their small bicycle repair business in Dayton, Ohio. Although, someone else may have invented the airplane, they also would have needed to be dreamers, who were brave enough to think about creating the impossible. Not the realistic.

Remember, someone invented the goal setting mantra. Someone put the “R” in there. Maybe its time to reinvent a new way.

What unrealistic goal do you have that moves your heart? What impossible thing would you like to create?

This is just one of 5 mistakes you can make in setting your goals that will keep you bored, small, and uninspired.

Tune in next week for goal-setting mistake #2. You will want to avoid this one at all costs, if you are planning to create phenomenal success in your businesses and life.