Facing the Reality of an Unrealistic Goal
An unrealistic goal has very little to do with the goal itself and everything to do with how real you’re being with yourself. Moreover, setting a goal by only thinking about the achievement is not being real with yourself.
This is a bitter pill to swallow, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news. However, it’s better to live in reality than to live in a fantasy world. At least in reality you can make a change using facts instead of prolonging disappointment.
The reality is that you will never reach a goal you set when you only want what a goal looks like, but you don’t want what it feels like. For example, you want to be an Olympic champion because it looks good to be an Olympic champion. But you don’t want the feeling of training pain, missing holidays with your loved ones, and sacrificing fun weekend after weekend, year after year.
Or you want to be a CEO because it looks good to be a CEO. But you don’t want the feeling of staying up all night for a week straight growing the company or averting a crisis.
Or you want to be a millionaire because it looks good to be a millionaire. But you don’t want the feeling of getting up at 5am and staying up to 2am working, researching, and making the connections it takes to be the best in the world at what you do.
You know you don’t want that feeling because you avoid the work that causes you to feel that way. Furthermore, if you keep avoiding the work that’s required to achieve the goal, you can never achieve that goal. This is what makes a goal unrealistic.
What separates people who achieve their goals from everyone else is not that they want it more than other people. It’s that they learn how to repeat the behaviors that help them achieve their goals. Even when those behaviors don’t feel good. Learning how to do this doesn’t happen overnight either. It requires a progression.
In short, contrary to popular belief it doesn’t always feel good to look good. You must come to terms with this fact to turn unrealistic goals into realistic goals.