How to Achieve Your Never Going to Happen Goals

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

— Nelson Mandela

It took six years after I first read Mandela’s quote to comprehend the life-altering implications in his words. In 2016, I launched a self-experiment to pursue my never going to happen goals. “Never going to happen” is perfect wording to describe goals that are exciting to contemplate but seem borderline impossible to accomplish. Look at the evidence:

• Little or no progress toward goal achievement.
• Plenty of procrastination in implementing my action plans.

My experiment was designed to answer two questions: What are my criteria when I regard my heartfelt goals as never going to happen? What breakthroughs are possible if I choose to defy my self-imposed limits?

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Defying Four Criteria to Dismiss Goals as Never Going to Happen

Criteria 1: Past history of failure.

• Act of defiance: After 10 years of hostile silence over a stupid misunderstanding, I picked up the phone and rekindled communication with my brother, David. We transformed our relationship to the closest it’s been since childhood.

Criteria 2: Unfamiliar activities that violate winning formulas.

• Act of defiance: After 40 years of success delivering speeches to corporate leaders, I overcame my fear of speaking to an unfamiliar audience where my presentation might bomb. I took a risk to speak to jail inmates on the topic, “To be a Victim or be Accountable: The Most Important Choice of Your Life.” I got my all-time highest evaluations for any presentation. I received dozens of thank you notes from inmates that brought tears to my eyes.

Criteria 3: Deviations from customary performance standards (e.g., age, sex)

• Act of defiance: At age 67, I regularly sprinted between 5.0-5.2 seconds in the 40-yard dash, beating Tom Brady’s 5.28 second time at the NFL Scouting Combine when he was 22 years old. Good riddance to the notion of “act your age.”

Criteria 4: Defying a personal weakness.

• Act of defiance: While I have struggled to comprehend financial concepts, I spent hours attending seminars about annuities. I learned about a concept, “guaranteed annual income,” which became the guiding principle for restructuring our financial plan. Our financial advisor was impressed when he saw a graphic display of the financial plan my wife and I had devised.

I am startled by how close I came to discarding these four fabulous goals to never going to happen status. I didn’t realize the risk I was taking. Instead of taking pride in major accomplishments, I’d be feeling regret for denying myself a chance to succeed. Thank goodness I took defiant action in the face of perceived impossibilities.

Nelson Mandela was right! Once I got done with my achievements, I stopped underestimating my abilities to accomplish goals that seem to be impossible. Now it’s your turn. You goals are so far away from what’s impossible, don’t sweat it!

Ruthlessly Honest Question

Be intrigued in answering this question: What are compelling heartfelt goals you regard as “never going to happen?” Come up with 3 examples.

Heroic Experiment for This Week

1. Pick one of your never going to happen goals to pursue in this experiment. Set a small risk as your first step to get started. Build on small steps to gain momentum to carry over into next week.

2. What marvelous benefits could you gain from pursuing this never going to happen goal regardless of the eventual outcome?

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