The next time you set a goal add this unique twist to it. Set the actual goal to be ten times whatever it is you want to achieve. Yes, I know this sounds unattainable. But how hard would you have to work to lose 50 lbs instead of 5? Run a 3-mile race 100 seconds faster than your last one instead of 10 seconds faster? Setting a goal ten times higher than you originally intended would get your mind in high gear to achieve. Your subconscious mind will know it must work ten times harder to hit this goal even if the goal was made merely to help you hit the original goal. Too often we set goals and then procrastinate until the deadline or lost interest all together in the original goal. Let’s go through a real-life example
Suppose you are a salesman who has a quota of $50,000 in product sales this month. Your boss strongly encourages you to hit that quota each month. However, inside your head you actually set a goal for yourself of $500,000 in product sales this month. When Monday morning rolls around how will you respond to this new goal? Your typical work day used to go something like this:
- Show up at the office around 8:30am or 9-ish.
- Get coffee, ask colleagues about their weekends
- Check email, tidy up your office a bit.
- Think about possibly going on a sales call today
- One hour lunch
- Surf the web a bit after lunch
- More banter with co-workers
- Make a couple calls to line up sales visits
- Go home
Now, knowing you need to do $500,000 in sales this month your day now unravels something like this:
- Show up at the office at 7:30am with coffee already consumed at home
- Make a to-do list of which three customers you will visit today
- Spend time updating your proposals for those three customers
- Grab a 30-minute lunch en route to your first customer visit at 11am
- Visit customers #2 and #3 all while brainstorming how to close the deals
Notice the less time you spend aimlessly idle in the office? The primary reason is that you know to hit that ten-times-goal you have no time to lose mapping out your plan to hit that goal. And the best part of this plan is that even if you fail miserably and hit 20% of your sales goal for the month you will have achieved double the quota set by your boss.
Ten times your goal changes your mind, your attitude, your time management and most importantly your odds of hitting your original goal itself.