Massive Goals

A record is a starting point, not a limit

A long time ago, a cave man burst out of his cave and hurled himself 100 metres down the track as fast as he could.  The reason, was that he had accidentally set his hair on fire.  The result, was that he had just set the first 100m world record.  If this could have been measured, it may have taken him 1 minute to cover the distance, but who knows. 

Imagine if that record still stood today.  In reality, we have seen this first record broken and re-broken until it has now fallen to around 9.77 seconds.  I will guarantee that the people who broke the record at any of these times didn’t think like most people do today.

Somehow most people have come to believe that records, top performances and other people’s achievements are goals that they should try to meet.  They know that they want to perform well, and so they set their sites on a record set by someone else. 

“This year I am going to sell as many Vacuum cleaners as Bill did back in 2005″

The closer they get to this record, the better they feel.  If they continue to strive, they may one day reach the goal and then they can feel satisfied.  What will they have achieved?  They will have proved that they are as good as “Bill”, but not much else.  You see they have taken the focus off what is possible and moved it to chasing what Bill did.  All of a sudden, they are judging themselves by Bill’s performance rather than by what they can actually achieve.  They have decided that the record is a limit.

How about, instead, we view these records as a starting point.  It has already been established that a record is within possibility.  We already know that it is achievable.  It is on the other side of the record that the adventure remains.  If the record is a starting point then we set aim at a point on its other side.

It may take us some time to get to the stage where we can come up next to an existing record, but the way has been paved for us.  It has already been done before and if we do what the record holder did, we may well reach the current record.  Our aim should be to get there as quickly as possible, because it is on the other side of the record that the real fun begins.  On the other side you are in uncharted waters.  This is where performance shifts a little away from science and a little towards art.  Who knows what will enable you to step beyond the current record, but 9 times out of 10 it is possible.

How does this apply to you?  Let’s think it through.  How many of your goals are based on achieving known records?  These records may not even be official records.  They may be just established top performances.  How many of your goals are based on equalling a performance that has already been made?

My example:  I understand that Leo at Zen Habits signed up 4700 RSS subscribers in the first 3 months of his site which is a very impressive result for a personal development site.  He has been able to achieve this because his site is a top quality resource and he works very hard.  Perhaps I should aim to meet his record with LifeGoalAction?  Perhaps not.  Leo has already shown us what is possible.  Anything up to 4700 subscribers in 3 months has already been done.  I should shoot for the other side of this point.  Either attracting 4700 subscribers in less than 3 months or taking 3 months to get to a larger number than 4700.

Currently there are 40 (59 as of 31/7/07) people subscribed to LifeGoalAction’s RSS feed (as of 30/7/07)which makes me very happy because the site is just one week old and even I haven’t subscribed yet. 

The difference between 40 and 4700 seems massive.  But Leo’s site started from zero at some point and steadily built up to 4700 and so I already know it is possible.  It is the other side of this limit that excites me.  So my aim becomes, sign up 4700 subscribers as soon as possible, so that there is still enough time in 3 months to make it to 5000.  I already know how to get to 4700 because Leo and others have shown me.  It all boils down to continually publishing articles that help my readers to solve their problems and get the most out of life.  If I work hard at this and get my site out there in the online world, then there is no reason why I cannot meet other site’s performance.  How I go about exceeding their performance is another issue that I will have to work on.  The path is less clear and I will have to innovate for myself.  This is when the challenge gets really exciting for me. 

Can you see the revolution that this change in thinking can have on our performance.  Instead of treating a record as a ceiling, it becomes our floor.  Instead of it being a limit, it becomes a starting point.  If you take this principle on board, you have just moved your performance out of the ordinary and into the exceptional.  From now on, you can focus on exceeding limits rather than meeting them.  From now on you will be setting rather than chasing expectations.  You have set yourself free to achieve what others haven’t yet, and experience the journey that has yet to be taken.

What is one record that you have aimed to meet?  How can you exceed it instead?  We’d love to hear your story, so please leave a comment below or use the contact page to send me a message.

Thanks

Tom