The Hidden Value of Pursing Unachievable Goals

Am I suggesting you pursue unachievable goals? YES.

Comfort zones are a figment of our imagination. To stay comfortable, we overestimate the effort involved and underestimate our full performance capacity to pursue goals. Without making the effort to master comfort zones, we have no factual basis to determine our full performance capacity.

Comfort Zone ≠ Performance Capacity

How do we determine our sense of reasonable effort and willingness to take risks to achieve ambitious goals? Instead of facing reality, we conjure up seemingly impossible predicaments:

“From the start, I didn’t know exactly what to do to accomplish my goal.”

“My past results pale by comparison to the bold aspirations I’m considering now.”

“I’ll get around to doing it someday when conditions improve.”

“I would have to get rid of several bad habits to succeed.”

Notice what passes for “impossible:”

Lack of know-how.

Past history of result doesn’t measure up with bold ambitions.

Less than ideal circumstances for success.

Bad habits to get rid of.

When I explained this predicament to my wife, Haley, she remarked, “There is no such thing as impossibility. But in everyday life, we each define it for ourselves consciously or unconsciously. We take these limits as absolute when they are not. We are so far from what’s actually impossible, don’t sweat it.” It is more accurate and empowering to use the term “perceived impossibility.”

Impossible ≠ Perceived Impossibility

If you consider a goal unachievable, you’re more likely to take risks and devise innovative methods. You’ll expend effort by a magnitude you never thought possible with attainable goals. Otherwise, you sell yourself short by protecting yourself from failure.

The primary benefit of unachievable goals is to aspire for bigger results than you think is possible. Even if you don’t fully succeed, you’ll often “fail” by producing bigger results than you thought was achievable.

My Experiment with Unachievable Goals—Age 70 is the New 25

I’ve been doing weightlifting and running as part of my exercise program for over 50 years. When I felt a need to challenge myself, I decided to achieve the entry level fitness standards of U.S. Army Rangers, who range in age from 17 to 34 years old. How old was I? 71 years old. My desire was fueled by one of my identities “70 is the new 25.”

I was overjoyed to surpass two standards, 49 pushups and 59 sit-ups in two minutes. I did 50 pushups and 70 sit-ups. I failed to meet the standards for running five miles in at least 40 minutes and doing 6 pullups. Big deal! I’ve maintained my breakthrough performances in sit-ups and pushups years later.

Unachievable goals offer benefits from the journey, not just the outcome. These benefits are profound. Learning to thrive in unfamiliar situations expands your range of life experiences. Discovering what doesn’t work leads to process improvements. Demolishing comfort zones leads to a wider range of choices.

Reframing the meaning of the word, “impossible” expands one’s freedom.

Be amazed to see what’s possible when you unleash your absolute best effort to pursue a seemingly unachievable goal.

Actor and film director, Christopher Reeve, explains: “So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

What’s it going to be–sell yourself short thinking you’ll fail or discover your absolute best effort and make surprising progress?