Are you setting big goals for yourself? Chances are, you’re not setting big goals because you’re afraid of not reaching them.

If that sounds like you, if you’re setting small goals, you’re not alone. I’ve found that most people don’t set big enough goals for themselves. Oh, and by the way, I’ve also been guilty of this.

When we set a goal for ourselves, we often set the bar really low. We set goals we know we can achieve. That way, we avoid the risk of failure and all of the negative thoughts and consequences that happen as a result of missing the mark.

About a year ago, I did an episode where I shared my thoughts about thinking differently about our goals. And since I recently had Neill Williams here on the podcast to talk about setting goals for 2022, I thought this would be a good time for you to hear that episode from a year ago.

It’s an episode that I got a lot of great feedback about. It surprised and inspired a lot of people about reframing our perspective on setting goals, and it fits in really well with the work we do inside of our Accelerator coaching program.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How our past experiences influence our current goal-setting habits
• Why viewing your goals as glass ceilings can be so powerful
• What’s even more important than reaching your goals
• A great way to stay motivated as you tackle your goals.

Links & Resources Mentioned in this Episode:

• Neill Williams
• DM me on Instagram
• Visit my YouTube channel
• The Art of Online Business website
• The Art of Online Business Podcast website
• Check out my Accelerator coaching program

Got A Question You Want Answered On the Podcast?

Ask your questions or let me know if there is a topic or guest you’d like to hear from in the comments below or click here to visit my contact page and submit your question there for a chance to be featured on one of my upcoming Q&A episodes.

Follow The Art of Online Business on iTunes and/or Stitcher

Please support the podcast by giving an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes!

Right-click here to download this episode

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy:

Quick Tip: Is Your Goal to Hit $1M?

#139: [Case Study] How a Kickstarter Campaign Raised $441K (3x Goal) with Facebook Ads

Quick Tip: Creating $50K Per Month

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Rick:
What’s up, my friends. Happy holidays if you are listening to this episode when it comes out, which is December 24th, 2021. If you’re listening to this in May of 2022, hey, I hope you’re having an amazing day.

This is a best-of episode here for you today because it is the holidays here in 2021. And I wanted to reshare with you

[00:00:22]
An episode I did about a year ago where I share my thoughts on thinking differently about goals.

Since we’re in goal setting season, if you will, for the new year, and following up my conversation that I had a few weeks ago here on the podcast with Neill Williams where we talked about a new way of thinking and setting goals for 2022, I wanted to reshare this episode with you.

[00:00:48]
Again, it’s about a year old, and I got a lot of great feedback about this episode, specifically because I’m sharing some different ways to be thinking about goals, and it kind of surprises a lot of people. This is a lot of the work that we do inside of our Accelerator coaching program.

[00:01:05]
So, without further ado, happy holidays again, and let’s dive into this best-of episode where we’re thinking differently about goals.

[00:01:17]
Welcome to the Art of Online Business podcast. My name is Rick Mulready, and I’m an online business coach, Facebook and Instagram ads expert, lifestyle entrepreneur, and I’m a total coffee snob, as well.

Each week, you’re going to learn actionable strategies, mindsets, and tips that take the guesswork out of growing and scaling a profitable online business so that you can truly be an

[00:01:42]
Entrepreneur with impact. This podcast is your secret weapon for fast tracking the growth of your online business.

Let’s do this. Alright, welcome back to the show, my friend. It’s quick tip Friday here on the podcast.

I don’t know why I laughed about that. I don’t know why I say it like that. It’s like my late night DJ voice that comes out.

[00:02:04]
That’s right. Rick Mulready here, and you’re listening to another quick tip episode here on the show. If you’ve never heard a quick tip episode here in the podcast, where the heck have you been? Just kidding. This is where I share a tip or a strategy that can help you optimize your online business, so you can have a bigger impact, and increase your revenue in the process.

[00:02:23]
If you’ve been listening for a while, welcome back. Thank you so much again, as always, for tuning into the show today.

I want to talk a little bit about a different way to think about setting goals in your business. And no, it’s not like one of those “Ugh, goal setting conversations.” No. I want to take a different approach to maybe encourage you, give you some ideas for how to think differently about goal setting.

The reason I want to talk to you about it on the show today is because this is something that I’ve experienced in my own business.

[00:02:51]
In my own head, and in the not so distant past, too. It’s been something that I’ve thought a lot about, that has come up a lot for me in the past. Also fairly recently, too. And I also see a lot of it in working with our Accelerator students. And I’m going to bring up a recent example of a conversation I had with one of our students.

[00:03:13]
When it comes to goal setting, what I find from a lot of people, and I’ve done this myself, is people don’t set big enough goals for fear of what it means about themselves. For example, if I set whatever—a million dollar goal for something, a hundred thousand dollars—whatever the goal is, if I don’t hit that goal, it’s very easy to say, “Well, I’m a failure.” Or, I’m not good enough to be able to hit that goal.”

[00:03:44]
It’s very easy to go to the negative. It’s what we make it mean about ourselves. If we don’t hit that goal. So what do we do instead? We set a more realistic. And it’s like, oh yeah, I know I can hit that goal. Yeah, that’ll be good if I hit it, but it’s just, okay. I hit the goal. I’ve achieved it. And someone will talk a little bit more about that here in a second, but I have the story me personally, getting authentic with you here for a second.

[00:04:12]
I have a story of not being enough or not doing enough. You know, nothing is ever enough for me personally, meaning like whatever I do, I look at like, oh, that’s not enough. Or I haven’t done enough or I’m not doing enough. And this is something that I’ve come to realize over the past few years. And I often get asked the question, you know, well, how far back do I attribute this to, like, when does this first.

[00:04:37]
You know, the whole kind of like therapy question. When, when did I first notice this sort of thing? I can take it back to like seventh grade. I grew up Catholic. I was an alter boy, random fact. I was an alter boy and I went to a Catholic grade school from second to eighth grade. And this grade school, small town, New Hampshire was real and there was one class per grade.

[00:05:00]
And so I basically went through second through eighth grade with roughly the same. 25 or so kids the whole time, but really in seventh grade, for me, it was, I just really felt like it was always an outsider. I was never one of the cool kids, you know, girls didn’t like me and it just, I just never felt, you know, like never enough right now on the flip side, I was an all-star in sports.

[00:05:26]
And so I played baseball, basketball and soccer. Growing up until I hit high school, then I started playing golf and I was on the golf team and all that stuff. But anyway, I was an all star in town, but then I hit high school. I was a very small fish in a big pond. All of a sudden and things changed. Yeah.

[00:05:44]
Well, it didn’t end up playing. I mean, I played some of the sports, but I wasn’t, I didn’t, I didn’t play a whole lot. And so it was just, again, it kind of perpetuated that never enough. I’m not doing enough. I’m not enough, but I’ve thought about that in how I’ve set goals. And it’s brought up the fear in me of like, all right, what does it mean about myself if I don’t hit that goal?

[00:06:04]
So what do I do is I don’t set a big enough goal. I don’t set that, you know, as they call it the stretch goal or things that really. I’ve become aware of this, obviously, as I’m talking about it, what that has caused me to do is set bigger goals. And I’ve also realized what I’m about to share with you right now.

[00:06:21]
But again, I see this a lot in our Accelerator students not setting big enough goals or thinking like I’m only successful. If I hit this. Now here’s the challenge for you when it comes to goal setting? What if the goal you set is only there to help you break through whatever your specific glass ceiling is?

[00:06:45]
If you will, I’m sure you’ve heard the term glass ceiling, right? Meaning like, you know, you think that this is the as only as high as you can go, so you keep bumping up against it, but really in truth, you can go, you can go beyond that, but you are hitting up against that glass ceiling. If you will, quote unquote for a reason.

[00:07:01]
Well, what if the goal, what if the purpose of the goal that you’re setting? What if that was the goals only purpose to help you break through your glass ceiling for you to be able to see what your glass ceiling is? And then allow you to break through it. What if the purpose of the goal that you’re setting is to reveal to you the blocks that are happening in your mind?

[00:07:25]
Now I’m going to get a little woo here on you, but to bring what’s going on in your subconscious brain, to the conscious part of your brain, to become more aware of it, like, oh, this is coming up for. Well, if you hadn’t said a big enough goal, a big goal, and you’re stretching yourself out, if you will, in order to hit that goal.

[00:07:44]
Well, it’s what you are becoming and who you are becoming in the process of achieving that goal. Right? Because when you do that again, it reveals the blocks that are happening in your mind that are keeping you from breaking through that glass ceiling. And so what if the purpose of the goal is again, to bring what’s going on in your subconscious.

[00:08:05]
To the conscious side of your brain. So you can then strategize and come up with ideas to work through them. Right. Because if you don’t set a goal, nothing ever comes up, you just float along. Or if you do set a goal, that’s completely achievable, then you’re like, yeah, you just like, yeah, I can achieve that.

[00:08:23]
No problem. You’re not stretching yourself. You’re not growing. You just kind of float along. And as long as your brain continues, thinking. What it’s been thinking to get you to where you are right now in your business and in your life as a result, it’s going to keep you from getting to the next level, whatever that next level is for.

[00:08:42]
Right. It’s going to keep you from breaking through that glass ceiling for you, whatever that is. I’m going to repeat that because this is really key here, guys, as long as your brain continues, thinking what it has been thinking to get you to where you are right now in your business, that thinking is going to keep you from getting to the next level, whatever that next level is.

[00:09:05]
Right. That next level is your glass ceiling. It’s helping you break through that. This is the whole saying of like, what got you here will not get you to where you want to go. That’s what this means right here. So I want to challenge you. What if the achievement of a goal that you set is actually not what’s most important?

[00:09:23]
What if was more important was who you were becoming towards the goal and in your pursuit of the goal? It’s the revelation of what’s holding you back, right from upleveling your, your business and yourself and, and your life, frankly. Right? What if the purpose of the goal is to reveal those blocks so that you can learn what they are and then move past them, come up with ways to move past them.

[00:09:48]
Because again, this is, this is about stretching yourself. So, yes, you can absolutely achieve or set goals that are totally achievable and there’s nothing wrong with that. But if you think about, if you’re not setting bigger goals for yourself, for fear of what might happen, if you don’t achieve them, I want to challenge you to think about it a little bit of a different way.

[00:10:09]
Who cares if you don’t achieve it necessarily, it’s who you are becoming in the pursuit of achieving that. Because I guarantee you that if you set a big goal, that’s bigger than that quote unquote achievable goal. And maybe you don’t hit that big goal. You’re very likely going to blow past that achievable goal and become a better person and a more optimized CEO, which we’re gonna start talking about here in the show, in the process.

[00:10:37]
Right. And just to kind of finish up here, one thing that I really like to do when you’re working towards a big goal and you’re moving from that subconscious thinking, like what, the blocks that are holding you back towards the conscious part of your brain as you’re thinking and like, oh, okay. That’s this is coming up for me.

[00:10:57]
Cool. I’m aware of it. I can strategize and try to come up with ideas. Well, during your pursuit of your goals here, write down things that are happening in your day to day, write down intentionally, write down the facts, the good things, because you might be on your pursuit of that big goal and you might be discouraged because you’re like, oh man, like this is not happening the way I want it.

[00:11:21]
Well, don’t forget. We often I’ve talked about it here on the show. We often discount the wins, especially when they’re the smaller wins. I want to encourage you to be intentional with writing down the facts, the good things that are happening every day in your business. This is going to allow you to see that you’re actually making progress.

[00:11:43]
And it’s also going to be, it’s going to allow you to see and become more aware of the person that you are becoming in your pursuit of that bigger goal. Okay. I’d love to know what you think about this, this concept that to talked about here today. Shoot me a DM over on Instagram. I’m at Rick Mulready.

[00:12:01]
This is a little bit of a different way to think about goals. Most people, myself included, have thought about goals in that SMART acronym, and being achievable.

Again, there’s nothing wrong with that, but what if we set bigger goals with the purpose of becoming and growing as a person, and using that goal to reveal the block

[00:12:21]
That’s holding ourselves back from achieving bigger and better things?

Alright, send me a DM over on Instagram, and let me know what you think about this, and if this resonates with you. Even if it doesn’t, you’re like “Rick, this makes no sense. I want to keep with my SMART goal.” Awesome. Let me know.

[00:12:36]
Hey, if you are an established online course creator or online coach, or maybe both, and by established I mean, you’re doing minimum a hundred thousand dollars a year in your online business, and you want to take things to the next level.

[00:12:49]
However, you’re not quite sure what to do in order to get there without adding more hours to your week, because you’re already working too many hours, right? You want to take things to the next level. You want to increase your impact, increase your profit while working fewer hours. Well, if that is you, and you’re feeling stuck in your business, you’re likely feeling overwhelmed in your business.

[00:13:15]
Not quite sure what next steps to be taking, then I want to invite you to learn more and apply. It’s application only for our Accelerator coaching program.

Again, this is for more established online course creators and online coaches who are looking to increase your profit, increase your impact with less hustle, and we help you do those things by optimizing your sales and marketing, optimizing your systems and processes in your business, and then optimizing your mindset.

[00:13:47]
Because 80% of the success of your business, my friends, as I always talk about here on the show, is all mindset. Yes, I am pointing at my temples when I do that. I don’t know why I have to do that whenever I say that. But, yeah, Accelerator is one-on-one coaching, group coaching, and a mastermind experience all wrapped up into one program.

[00:14:05]
So, if you want to learn more and apply, go to RickMulready.com/Accelerator.

Alright, my friends, super appreciate you.

As always, until next time, be well, and I’ll talk to you soon.