Ep 172 Setting Realistic Goals: Striking the Balance Between Ambition and Attainability
===
Sara Mayer: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Bold Goal Crusher Podcast. For anyone looking to stop letting life get in the way and start crushing bold goals. I'm your host, Sara Mayer, and I'm thrilled to navigate this journey with you because it's time to start boldly achieving without working double time. So let's dive in.
Sara Mayer: Hello, bold goal crushers. I'm super excited about this episode. We always talk about goals and how to achieve them, but today we're talking about striking the balance between ambition and attainability. So if you're new here, please feel free to hit that subscribe button. If you've been around a while, consider leaving a review now.
Sara Mayer: I don't believe in smart goals because I think a lot of times what happens is we're very excited about something. [00:01:00] We know we want to do it. We have all these ideas. And then when we start to put pen to paper and make them realistic, it sucks the life out of the goals. And that's when our fear sets in. So as I like to have you dream big with your goals and make them lofty.
Sara Mayer: And when you sit down to write the plan for how you're going to achieve them, that's when you want to get specific. So let's talk a little bit about the power of ambition and some of the pitfalls of unrealistic goals. So Yes, your goals need to be a little realistic, like winning the lottery, buying an Island doing certain things may not realistically be it within your reach.
Sara Mayer: And there's the different, there's a difference between being ambitious and going after what you truly want. And also having the ability to actually. Obtain your [00:02:00] goals because just putting a bunch of stuff out there as something you may or may not want to accomplish is not going to build that goal muscle, that goal building muscle.
Sara Mayer: So it is awesome to be ambitious and have that driving motivation and pushing boundaries and knowing that you can set out to achieve anything. But there are some negative consequences of setting unrealistic goals. First off, you could get burned out. You could become disappointed. You could become discouraged or feel like you're not able to achieve everything you want to.
Sara Mayer: So it's a balance between ambition and being realistic into what you can achieve. The real realistic part of goal setting comes in the point when you are setting milestones. So it's important to be realistic. I know you guys are all Surprise. I'm [00:03:00] talking about this. It's important to be realistic when you're setting those milestones on what you can actually achieve within a certain timeframe.
Sara Mayer: So for example, can you achieve. This when the kids are going back to school, when you are about to launch something really big, when you know that you're really busy and the answer may be no. So it's all about setting smaller milestones that can maintain the momentum and provide a sense of progress on your goals.
Sara Mayer: So here's a couple of examples. I always used to joke. If you want me to do anything, ask me in July, because I'm the least busy in July. Although this July I'm really busy in normal times. I don't know if any times actually are normal anymore, but most years. My July, historically, has been not as busy, and so because of that, I would [00:04:00] take on things that were things that built over time and the actual event or culmination of the project was in May or March through May, and that's a historically busy time for me.
Sara Mayer: So it's important to be realistic when you're setting these milestones about what you can and cannot accomplish during that time. And making sure that you're realistic in how much you're able to move forward on your own. And maybe you need somebody to build this with you. So it's important to be realistic as you set these milestones.
Sara Mayer: And then finding that balance between ambition and attainability is super important. So being ambitious and being ready to go get your goals is great, but you need to be able to reasonably make progress moving forward to attain them. So there's a concept you've all heard of it about [00:05:00] stretch goals and stretch goals are, you can set the goal and then set The stretch goal, which is a challenge, but it's not overwhelming.
Sara Mayer: So how that may look is your goal. Maybe to, launch five pop five podcast episodes and launch your podcast in a month. And your stretch goal could be to launch 10, launch your podcast with 10 episodes. It's not overwhelming. But it is a stretch. You're going to need to hustle a little and get things together.
Sara Mayer: So it's important to really think about what the goal is and then what the stretch goal is. And everybody knows their own capabilities and some people overestimate their abilities and some people underestimate, especially when it comes to time and resources when setting goals. So it's important to think about your personal capabilities.
Sara Mayer: If you are one that tends to play it safe. Put a little stretch goal on it. If [00:06:00] you are one who tends to overestimate what you can accomplish, walk it back a little. And that is something that you will have to identify for yourself, but it's really that balance of being ambitious. and attaining your goal, because the goal is for you to build the muscle so that you are able to continually crush your goals.
Sara Mayer: Now, throughout the goal process, there's always going to be failure. There's going to be maybe a fear of Being successful and maybe a fear of failure. And sometimes people are like, what a fear of success. Yeah. Some people are afraid of what will happen when they are successful. Will their life change?
Sara Mayer: Will they need to do something different? And that gets them out of their comfort zone. And what does that look like? So there are common fears associated with goal setting. [00:07:00] The fear of failure, the fear of success, the fear of what if I have to become somebody different? And my spouse doesn't recognize that person, or what if I need to actually quit my job or move somewhere else?
Sara Mayer: And it's important to address those fears as they come. And Use them as motivation rather than roadblocks. So motivation to actually move forward with your goal motivation to achieve great success and. Overcoming the fear of failure and the fear of success is not easy. And that's why it's super important that you're adjusting your goals as circumstances change and reflecting on how it's going, how you're moving forward on achieving that.
Sara Mayer: Life is fluid. We all know that and circumstances change, seasons change. There's the time that people go, kids go back to [00:08:00] school. There's the times that, just tend to be more fast paced. There's the holidays that impact goal achievement, and it's really important to be flexible and adaptable in goal setting, but also planning for those stages.
Sara Mayer: Couple strategies that I use for adjusting goals without compromising the ambition is to really think about what is the season coming up for me? What can I realistically do and how can I move forward and know that it's okay. If for a couple of weeks, I don't touch the goal, but have a plan to get back on track and get that habit and also build it into my day so that I can make sure that It does move forward as quickly as possible.
Sara Mayer: And so it's important to really adjust those goals as circumstances change and change the dial, the noddle, the throttles up or down a little bit. All right, bold goal crushers. As you [00:09:00] go to set out your goals, remember there's a. Balance between ambition and attainability. And the real goal is for you to set and crush goals, not to just have goals that sit there on a shelf and never come to life.
Sara Mayer: So be ambitious, be realistic. I know I'm saying that. And. Make your goal to actually attain the goal. It's finding that right balance between ambition and attainability that will allow you to build that goal setting muscle. All right, bold goal crushers. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. If you really enjoyed what you heard today, please consider dropping a review.
Sara Mayer: If you're new here, please subscribe. We'd love to have you as part of our goal setting journey. It's time to crush your goals and everything that gets in the way because you do not need to work double time. So let's get to it.
Sara Mayer: Thank you for [00:10:00] tuning into the bold goal crusher podcast where we crush goals and everything that gets in the way. I always love to support my community.
Sara Mayer: I look forward to seeing you crush your goals this year.
