Why You Should Set Unrealistic Goals

(FYI, this blog post is shared form my MMEducation blog, where I use neuroscience to teach you how to learn faster & practice smarter.)

The problem with realistic goals

Do you ever feel stuck when practicing? You're not sure what to practice next or lack the motivation to keep pushing to break through the wall you just hit. Well, then you might have a case of grown-up syndrome. Realistic goals are very effective when it comes to short term, actionable goals. But the problem with them is that you have to set new ones all the time. Which can take a considerable amount of time by itself. In "The Purpose Of Unrealistic Goals" I show you how to set goals that inspire you and help you to keep your focus on the important stuff.

The Secret Sauce

When we become adults our brains change. When we set out to learn something new, we want to understand the mechanics and theory behind it. We want assurance that what we are trying to do is actually possible. A young kid (1-5 years) on the other hand mostly learns through experience. They haven't been taught the big lie that "Failure is bad!" If they fail, they get up and try again always focused on the big picture goal. Until they succeed or get so exhausted that they need to take a break.

It's a bit different with adults. Most of us are scared of failure. "What will THEY think of me, if I FAIL?" is a mantra that accompanies us day in day out. And even if nobody is there to witness our failure, it still hurts. Because, we've been trained that failure is bad. That's why we tend to set goals where they are already met. We try tp eliminate the chance of failure by any means and therefore cripple our vision. And there was a time where this idea made sense. In the olden industrial days failing at your job in the assembly line of a factory might have caused the whole production to stop and cost the owner a lot of money.

Fortunately, these times are over. The mantra that I regularly tell myself is "If you didn't fail, it's because you didn't challenge yourself enough!" Not failing equals being stuck. 

And to get unstuck it helps to think like a child. Setting outrageously unrealistic goals. Goals that (and here we just sprinkle a couple of grains of adult thinking in the recipe) serve a higher purpose. If you think of the biggest artists in history, they all had a higher purpose. That's where they got their drive from. That's why the Beatles didn't give up after being rejected by numerous labels. Artists like that don't wonder what to do next, because they are doing everything they do with purpose. Serving their vision goal.

Once you have that VISION GOAL, setting realistic goals to move towards the higher goal becomes an easy task.

So do yourself a favour and allow yourself to dream big!