What No One Tells You About Setting Big Goals

The internet is full of guides regarding how you should set huge goals. Set 10x goals. Set 100x goals. And then go and kill it. Just like that.

When we tell others to set big goals, we forget to tell them a very important part of the equation. The part containing time.

I am all in for setting big goals. Set them as big as you can imagine. Then stretch your imagination and set them even bigger.

But at the same time don’t set unrealistic timelines for them. Don’t wish to move the mountain in a day. Or build an empire in a week.

If you try doing too much in too little time, you’ll most likely start feeling overwhelmed or burn-out. Hustle as much as you want, but don’t expect things to change overnight.

We tend to set unrealistic timelines to our goals, and when we aren’t able to meet them, we start feeling overwhelmed. That we have failed. So we start losing the focus on what really matters: the progress made and give up.

Life is not a sprint, but a marathon. The rabbit may lead for a time but in the end, it’s the constant effort of the turtle that wins the race.

“Micro speed, macro patience.” — Gary Vaynerchuk

Don’t underestimate what you can do over a larger period of time. Your goals are important, but so is setting appropriate deadlines for them.

You can’t change your world in a day. But you can change it, little by little every day.

So the next time you sit down to set up goals, remember that the Rome wasn’t built in a day. Focus on smashing your goals, but don’t expect to see results straight away. Go kill it!