All It Takes Is A Goal!

Have you ever regretted missed opportunities or wasted potential? Certainly yes. While touring a prospective college campus of your brother's, which is an exciting moment but turns into frustration as you reflect on your wasted college years. But rather than stew in bitterness, how about we become curious? Does that change anything, even if we couldn't change the past?

Let's examine one unique approach that helps me pursue my day-to-day activities and achieve my goals. We will see how to set practical goals, get unstuck, and start reaching our full potential.?

Your absolute #1 goal

Many people feel like they need to live up to their potential. Indeed, according to research, a shocking 50 percent of people report that half of their potential remained untapped. It was as if they could see a pile of unopened gifts but, for some reason, felt unable to unwrap them.?

Why does it have to be this way? What if each day could feel like a gift, with every year progressively better than the last?

First, we need to get specific. Potential needs to be a better-defined concept; taking action on something you need help clearly articulating is challenging. So that's why we start with goals.?

Goals provide the concrete finish line that potential lacks. They allow you to orient yourself in the right direction, measure progress, and stay motivated. You can trigger a cascade of accomplishments by distilling the nebulous potential into specific goals.

Ah, an obstacle? We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in the short term while underestimating our capabilities in the long run. One year feels like forever, so we pile on a mountain of goals and New Year's resolutions to accomplish right now – only to abandon them in despair when we inevitably fall behind schedule.

The problem isn't having goals but with how we set them. Most people's goals need to be more specific, numerous, and disconnected from their day-to-day realities. We say we want to "lose weight" or "write a book," but we don't break those aspirations down into bite-sized, executable steps. We treat goal-setting as a once-a-year event rather than an ongoing process.

To achieve success, you need a different approach to goal-setting. You need a system—one that is specific and measurable, focused on a few top priorities, reviewed and adjusted regularly, connected to your passions and values, and bolstered by supportive habits and behaviours.

This is the basis for everything, and at its core is identifying your number-one goal for the year. Not your top ten goals or even your top five—just one priority you commit to above all else.

The beauty of choosing one goal is that it forces you to cut through the noise and focus on what matters most. It prevents you from spreading yourself too thin or chasing someone else's definition of success. Your number-one goal becomes your North Star – the fixed point you can use to navigate through decisions and align your efforts productively.

Of course, you'll still have other responsibilities and aspirations. But by getting crystal clear on your top priority, you create a powerful filtering mechanism. Whenever a new opportunity or obligation arises, you can ask: "Does this align with my number-one goal? Will it move me closer to or farther away from my target?" Anything that's not a "Hell, yes!" on moving closer becomes a no.

I tried breaking it into 90-day increments to bring your number-one goal to life. Twelve months is too long to stay focused, but anyone can commit to three months of dedicated effort. Within every 90 days, you identify the two to three key actions that will produce the most outstanding results. Then, it's just a matter of relentless execution, followed by a brief rest and recalibration before launching into the next 90-day sprint.

By adopting this approach of targeted goal-setting combined with disciplined follow-through, I made massive strides in health, relationships, and personal growth. What once felt like untapped potential became a series of tangible wins through the power of clear goals and committed action.

The potential isn't a finite resource allocated at birth but an expandable reserve that grows with each milestone you achieve. All it takes is a goal – or, more precisely, the proper goal pursued correctly.

So, what's your number-one goal that will unlock new possibilities and move you closer to your full potential? Could you define it, commit to it, and get to work? Your future self will thank you.

Harness the power of games.

Do you ever struggle with motivation? If so, you're not alone.?

We may understand the benefits of growth perfectly well. The problem is that we all have a "stuck self" – that stubborn part of our psyche that resists change and clings to comfortable routines.?

So, how can we overcome this internal adversary and tap into our full potential?

In 2023, I started a new blog on a whim, with no real strategy or expectations. Surprisingly, it quickly gained traction, attracting hundreds of readers within weeks. As I threw myself into this new passion project, I realized that This is just a game.

Instead of a routine work task, my blog became an exciting challenge with clear rules and rewards. The more I posted in proper regular intervals, the more traffic and engagement I generated. Previously daunting tasks, like waking up early or limiting TV time, suddenly felt easy. Why? Because they were in service of a game I loved playing. I had stumbled upon a powerful truth: turning goals into games makes them far more achievable.

Games are an antidote to our natural resistance to change. They provide the structure, motivation, and dopamine hits that make hard work feel fun and rewarding. When we're absorbed in a game we enjoy, distractions lose their power, and discipline comes more easily.

I learned this from my mom, who overcame an aversion to chores and homework by creating a game with a giant flip chart and Post-it notes. She changed my attitude by turning mundane tasks into a chance-based challenge, complete with silly rewards, and got results without nagging or playing the bad guy.

What about the corporate world? One woman, tasked with managing a team of resentful employees, found her saving grace in a metrics-based raffle game. By offering gift card prizes for improvements in key performance indicators, she got her disengaged team invested despite their initial resistance. The result? Doubled efficiency, a promotion – and the most significant raise in company history.

The lesson is clear: if we want to outsmart our stuck selves and follow through on our goals, we need to turn them into games. We genuinely enjoy not just any game but one with clear rules, regular feedback, and juicy rewards. Our potential is unlocked when the joy of playing overpowers the inertia of standing still.

The first step is to find what motivates you. Reflect and write a "Best Moments List" – a collection of experiences, accomplishments, and rewards that have fulfilled you. Then, use this list to pinpoint the elements to weave into your games.

Simplicity is also essential. The blogging game could have been more collaborative; it involved consistently writing, posting, and engaging. Similarly, the chore chart consisted of just a flip chart, some post-its, and a dash of silly fun. Could you resist the urge to overcomplicate your games with too many rules or moving parts?

Giving your game a visual and tactile dimension can also enhance its appeal. Seeing and interacting with your progress tracking concretely makes games feel more genuine and engaging.

Another tip is to incorporate elements of surprise and novelty. The Post-it chore system kept its creator's kids engaged partly because they never knew which task they would uncover next. Even my blogging journey came with unexpected twists and rewards I couldn't have predicted at the outset. By building some variability and randomness into your games, you keep things fresh and ward off boredom.

Finally, the most motivating games provide frequent feedback and rewards. The manager who turned around her department's performance didn't wait until the end of the year to recognize progress – she implemented prize drawings weekly. When designing your goal games, look for ways to give yourself regular "ins" and dopamine hits along the way rather than reserving all the celebration for the finish line.

Ultimately, crafting the perfect game is a personal and creative process. What works for one person may not resonate with another. The most important thing is to keep experimenting and iterating until you find an approach that makes growth feel less like a grind and more like an absorbing adventure. By staying attuned to your quirks and passions and applying the principles modelled in these success stories, you'll be on your way to becoming your favourite opponent – and your most unstoppable champion.

The power to change, it turns out, doesn't come from ironclad willpower or superhuman discipline. It comes from the simple, timeless magic of play. When we approach growth with a spirit of curiosity and adventure rather than grim determination, breakthroughs happen. So the next time you're staring down a daunting goal, don't just grit your teeth and bear it. Design a game you can't wait to win, and let your stuck self be your first opponent to beat. On the other side lies a life rich with realized potential – and much fun along the way.

Progressing towards your GOAL with Middle Goals

Have you ever felt like a rabbit in a world built for turtles? I certainly have. As a self-proclaimed "goal nerd" with a penchant for ambitious projects, I have always been more of a sprinter than a marathoner. But in my quest to unlock full potential, I discovered that the classic fable of the tortoise and the hare holds a powerful truth: consistency beats speed every time.

The problem is that most of us operate in just two gears—the Comfort Zone and the Chaos Zone. We're either stuck in the familiar, low-expectation rut of the Comfort Zone or frantically chasing a dozen goals at once in the Chaos Zone, bouncing from one shiny object to the next without ever making real progress. What we're missing is the middle path—the Potential Zone.

To escape the Comfort Zone, I recommend starting with "Easy Goals," bite-sized challenges that can be accomplished in a week or less, with obvious first steps and minimal cost. These quick wins build momentum and self-awareness, helping us identify the activities that light us up.?

But there's a danger here. As we taste success, there's a solid temptation to overcorrect and bite off more than we can chew.

That's "where middle Goals" come in. Spanning 30 to 90 days, these mid-range objectives are designed to cultivate consistency and avoid burnout. The key is flexibility – having a wide array of actions to choose from so that progress can happen anywhere, anytime. Middle Goals should be challenging enough to keep us engaged but not so rigid that missing a day derails the whole endeavour. They're about developing a sustainable rhythm, not achieving perfection.

Of course, even the most well-crafted Middle Goal can only succeed with one crucial ingredient: time. Carving out space for our goals can be challenging in a world of endless distractions and competing priorities. But I insist that scattered minutes matter more than we realize. Success, it turns out, often hides in the seconds we waste waiting for Zoom meetings to start, sitting in the school pickup line, or mindlessly scrolling through social media.

The solution is to "steal back" those in-between moments and invest them in intentional action. By breaking our Middle Goals into bite-sized steps that can be tackled in 15 minutes or less, we make progress possible no matter how packed our schedules seem. I wrote an entire poetry book in stolen increments, a testament to the power of small, consistent efforts over time.

An exciting shift happens as we value our minutes more highly. We become less willing to dedicate our precious time to activities and emotions that don't serve our goals. Worry, stress, and distraction start to lose their grip as we redirect our energy toward what we care about. Discipline becomes less about white-knuckling our way through temptation and more about devotion to our highest priorities.

This is the essence of living in the Potential Zone—not a state of perfect productivity but a commitment to consistent forward motion aligned with our deepest values. It may feel uncomfortable initially, but as the results start to speak for themselves, the awkwardness gives way to a new kind of ease and flow.

My own experience proves the transformative power of this approach. By trading the boom-and-bust work style for the steady pursuit of Middle Goals, I turned my once-floundering career around, writing books and doing GYM and blogging with previously unimaginable consistency. The secret, I discovered, wasn't some superhuman willpower or motivation but a willingness to honour my time and trust the process.?

Ultimately, what's in it for me?

Unlocking our potential is a journey of clarity, consistency, and engagement. By setting specific goals, turning them into absorbing games, and committing to steady progress through "Middle Goals," we give ourselves the tools to overcome resistance and achieve extraordinary results.

The ultimate reward is not just external success—the deep sense of alignment and joy from becoming our best selves. Embrace the power of goal-setting, gamification, and consistent action to break out of your Comfort Zone.?

Honour your time, trust the process, and know that a life of rich meaning and boundless growth is within your reach.?

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