The first of the three exciting facts is that “Luck” shouldn’t be part of the equation in your mind when setting a goal.
When you’re thinking about something big you want to pursue, it can almost feel impossible from where you’re currently sitting.
Especially if tens of thousands — or potentially even millions — of other people want the same “dream” you are wanting.
I felt this way when I decided a few years ago that I wanted to become a professional writer. With literally millions of people attempting to write for a living on the internet, it seemed like luck had to be involved.
It seems like some magic incident had to occur. Something completely out of my control. The same is true of other goals I’ve since set, and goals I’m even now pursuing.
When you have something HUGE you want to do, it can feel completely impossible from your current vantage point.
There are only a few people TRULY doing what you want to do. And somehow they got there. But certainly, you couldn’t do the same. Right?
That feeling is completely natural and leads us to believe LUCK is an integral part of achieving goals. And whether it is or isn’t doesn’t really matter.
A much more important FACT is that there actually is a pathway to your goal. At this present moment, you probably don’t know what that path is.
But it does exist.
From where you currently are to where you truly deeply want to go. No matter how far away. No matter how “dreamy” and seemingly impossible.
There actually is a path. And even more interesting is that the behaviors you need to DO to achieve your goals are not rocket science. They are probably very simple and non-complex.
Of course, you need to practice and fail and eventually master. But the behaviors and skills to achieve your wildest dreams are not beyond you. In fact, if you actually got to work on them, you’d be surprised how “do-able” it actually is.
There is a tangible, practical, and walkable path to achieving whatever goal you want to achieve.
There is a tangible, practical, and walkable path to becoming a millionaire in a way that resonates with you.
There is a tangible, practical, and walkable path to having deeply impactful and intimate relationships — to having whatever form of freedom or experience you want in life.
Whatever it is you want, there is a path from where you are to where you want to go. Luck may be involved, but it’s not actually necessary. What is necessary, though, is:
- knowing where you want to go,
- knowing how to get there, and
- knowing you can do it.
All three of these things become increasingly clear as you begin walking your path. They are the three things required to experience deep motivation — according to one of the most well-researched theories of motivation.
Indeed, all three of these things are actually feedback loops which fuel each other.
- As you become more clear on what you want, you’ll discover how to achieve it
- As you study how to achieve it and begin moving forward, your confidence in your ability to walk the path will increase
- As your confidence increases, your vision and clarity of that vision will also increase, thus fueling this whole process over and over — a virtuous cycle upward!
Eventually, momentum and motivation take completely over and you’ll have a hard time stopping yourself from achieving your goal. Eventually, your identity shifts and you become what it is you’re seeking. You attract your goals and dreams by the person you are.
In every instance, you become the person who can have the goal before achieving it. It is BECAUSE your identity fully embraces your future results that those results become yours.
As you learn and act and move in the direction you want to go — you’ll change as a person. The more aggressive you act toward your goal, the faster and deeper will be your change.
FACT #1: DON’T WORRY ABOUT LUCK. THERE ACTUALLY IS A PATH FROM WHERE YOU ARE TO WHERE YOU WANT TO GO. JUST WALK THE PATH. YOU CAN GET THERE. IT’S NOT AS COMPLEX AS YOU’RE MAKING IT.
It may seem impossible from here. But it’s not. Soon enough, you’ll start to realize that it’s actually not as hard as it seems. And you’ll wonder why so few people strive for big and amazing things in their lives.
You’ll wonder why so many people sell themselves short.
One of the main reasons they do is because they genuinely believe LUCK is a core factor. It’s not.
FACT #2: When You Set A Goal, Your Brain Will Immediately Begin Producing Obstacles Pointing The Way
Your brain is a brilliant organism.
When you set a new goal — one in which you truly want — then your brain and body will immediately begin conjuring up obstacles to achieving that goal.
These obstacles could be financial, time-based, skill-based, relationship-based… they could be anything. The obstacles are what you must successfully pass through in order to get to where you want to go.
You’re never pre-qualified to do something great. It is by passing through the obstacles that you become great. Passing through the obstacles is how you are transformed and changed as a person.
If you’re not willing to pass through difficult challenges, then you are what psychologists would call, emotionally inflexible. You’re emotionally immature if you won’t deal with challenges and obstacles. Childish stuff.
It takes emotional flexibility to take on challenges you’ve never taken on before. Most people avoid hard emotions and most people evade true learning — which is the essence of passing through obstacles upward.
Your success becomes inevitable when you stop avoiding growth and instead, it becomes your quest, joy, and obsession. Indeed, you can get to the point where you THRIVE under pressure. You can learn to LOVE doing things which produce anxiety and even awkward emotions.
For example, I needed to film an add for a promotion I’m currently running. I decided to film the add from my cell phone in a grocery store surrounded by several people. It was totally awkward for me, until it wasn’t. I had people looking at me and wondering what I was doing.
And this is exactly why I did it. As the saying goes, “It’s easy to learn to meditate out in nature. Try learning to meditate on the back of the bus.”
You get to choose how steep your learning curve is. When you face big obstacles head-on, rather than from the side or avoiding them for years, then you steepen your learning curve.
As you make your learning curve steeper through increased external difficulty and pressure — your inner resilience, confidence, and capability increase.
Rober Brault once said, “We are kept from our goals not by obstacles, but by a clear path to lesser goals.”
It’s not actually obstacles that stop you from getting from where you are to where you want to be. Instead, it is by avoiding those obstacles and by opting for an easier path with fewer obstacles.
Fear is the direction of your ideal future.
Everything you want is on the opposite side of fear and obstacles.
The obstacle IS the only way forward.
FACT #2: YOUR BRAIN IS A BRILLIANT MACHINE. WHEN YOU SET A GOAL, YOUR BRAIN WILL IMMEDIATELY POINT THE WAY TO ACHIEVING THAT GOAL IN THE FORM OF OBSTACLES. IT IS BY PASSING THROUGH THOSE OBSTACLES THAT YOU TRANSFORM YOURSELF INTO A PERSON THAT CAN HAVE YOUR GOALS.
Fact # 3: If You’re Not Pursuing A Bigger Future, Then You’re Living In Your Past
If you’re not currently pursuing goals that challenge and excite you, then you’re not an exciting or interesting person.
People who aren’t striving for something bigger are boring.
People who aren’t striving for something bigger have “run out of future,” in the words of Dan Sullivan. When you run out of future, then you have nothing to live for in the here-and-now. You’re not actively trying to change things. You’re simply existing and dragging your feet. Your brain has nothing to engage it. You’re atrophying as a person.
People are very quick to get into subconscious patterns. This is easy to spot in relationships. The longer a relationship exists, the more “past” there is to draw from in that relationship, and the more likely patterns are likely to occur — keeping the relationship from going to new and exciting places.
Having a goal gives you something exciting to focus on. It gives you a future to pursue. And only by pursuing a bigger future can you create different results from your past.
If you’re not creating a new and exciting future, then you’re living a pattern from your past. If this is the case, then your life and relationships are dull, boring, and sub-par.
Your life doesn’t have to be dull and boring.
Your life should be filled with excitement and surprise. You become more spontaneous and flexible as a person by pursuing a new and different future.
What do you want your romantic relationship to look like?
What do you want your environment to look like?
What do you want your income to look like?
What do you want your body to look like?
You get to decide all of these things. You get to decide your lifestyle, happiness, success, connection, and joy. If you don’t create these things, then your past and/or environment are creating them for you.
Set goals and begin living a new and exciting future. Create new emotions. Allow yourself to have more surprise and spontaneity in your life. Stop repeating the patterns of the past.
Stop living a boring life.
Stop living a boring day, today.
Do something different.
Use a little imagination.
Embrace some crazy emotions by taking new action.
Surprise yourself and others by doing something totally different.
Your brain needs 2 things to thrive: nutrition and novelty. Novelty is “NEWNESS.” Your brain literally needs you to do something new or it gets old. An old and atrophied brain is not going to produce inspiring or interesting ideas and outcomes.
Break the habit of the past.
Break the patterns of the past.
Upgrade your relationships today.
Upgrade your confidence.
Upgrade your environment and income.
Have fun.
Play more.
Embrace surprise.
Embrace success.
FACT #3: PURSUING GOALS SHIFTS YOUR LIFE FROM BEING BORING AND REPETITIVE TO EXCITING AND SURPRISING.
Ready to Upgrade?
I’ve created a cheat sheet for putting yourself into a PEAK-STATE, immediately. You follow this daily, your life will change very quickly.
Originally published on Medium.