Reach for the Sky: Set Lofty Goals for Yourself

When I start running my financial newsletter, I remember thinking to myself "All you need is 50 paying subscribers at $19.95 a month and you will be able to pay your rent with the newsletter." I scratched and clawed my way to 50 subscribers, and you know what started to happen? I started to slow down. I had set a low goal for myself, and once I achieved it, I started to lose some of my drive.

I remember talking to one of my very-successful friends at the time, and he said "Why are you setting your goals so low? You should be setting the bar as high as possible." He was exactly right. By setting a very-reachable goal, I had started to suffer a bit of a letdown once I had reached my goal.

So, at the time, I decided that I was really going to set my sights high. I didn't want 50 paying subscribers, I wanted 500. It took me about 3 months to reach 50 paying subscribers, but as soon as I set my sights higher, I blew through 100 subscribers, 200 subscribers, 300 subscribers, and eventually did reach my goal of 500 subscribers in June of 2001, roughly two and a half years after I had started the newsletter.

There is a saying, if you set your goals very high and come up short, your results will be much better than if you had just set an easily-attainable goal and reached it. Let's say that you are entering your first year of university. If you set a goal of getting just a "C" average, then that is probably the best you are going to do. But what if you set your sights on a straight "A" average? You try your hardest, and end up with a mixture of A's and B's. Sure, you didn't quite reach your goal, but the results were much better than if you had set your sights on a "C" average.

It's the power of positive thinking. The power of visualization. Don't say to yourself "Oh, wouldn't it be great if I could attain this goal." Say to yourself, "I WILL attain this goal, it's just a matter of time. Let me outline the steps necessary to attain my goal."

Don't say, "I want to lose 10 pounds." Say "I want to be in the best shape possible." Don't say, "I want to pay off my credit card bills." Say "I want to pay off all of my debt." Don't say "I want to be able to pay my car insurance bill with the revenues from this web site." Say "This web site is going to pay ALL of my bills."

You will find, when you start setting lofty goals for yourself and actually believing that you can reach them, that you will have a tendency of just slowing inching towards your goals. Continuous effort is the key to fulfilling your goals. Set your sights high, and don't take no for an answer.

Filed under: Motivational