While it is fabulous to feel inspired and motivated to aim high when engaging with a mentors’ teachings, it is even more fabulous to be self-motivated to aim high. Self-motivation is like a living breathing being that constantly needs to be fed, watered, and tweaked to obtain the best results. There are always ways to squeeze even more success out of a business, or even personal development by stretching goals.
Aiming high might terrify some, while being truly thrilling to others. To self-motivate to achieve bigger better goals is not rocket science, all it really requires is ambition, and commitment to that ambition. Even when goals are stretched and set high it is still possible to use the “small wins” strategy to keep things manageable.
Jack Welch who is now retired was the first to coin the phrase “stretching goals”. He is a chemical engineer and also the former CEO of General Electric. This tactic he espoused, was a very simple philosophy, because when a seemingly impossible objective has been set the results tend to be quite surprising, as well as yield phenomenal results. The point being, that the results achieved are generally far higher than those that would have been achieved when aiming lower.
The biggest issue for most people is staying motivated as well as productive. To reach Superhero heights, one could be forgiven for thinking that a Kryptonite cloak is the very least that is required. Self-motivation could be thought of as a Kryptonite cloak. It keeps creative fires burning, and turns self-starters into fire-starters, and we don’t mean arsonists.
Independent thinkers tend to be the self-starting types who have a plan in place to help them continually be self-motivated. The trick to this motivation is finding out what motivates one in the first place. What drives us? Surprisingly, very few people actually know. It is not always clear to us what we desire, but this does not always cause us to say “no” to opportunities when they happen to come our way. Saying “yes” to an opportunity, even if we do not know why we said yes, usually indicates that we have made that decision based on what we desire. Even if this is an unconscious desire.
Reaching for the stars and aiming high, can have one of two outcomes. It will either cause us to burn out, and lose motivation just like Icarus who flew too close to the sun, or cause us to reach higher for even better success. If we burn out, then this stretch goal we were pursuing was more than likely not of our desire. But just like muscles that are trained in the gym, the more we stretch and bench- press the stronger we get. Aiming for a low result will generate just that – a low result.
A positive mind-set is vital for generating any kind of success. A positive, self-motivated mind which desires anything to be better can make it happen. The more ambitious the goal, the more heavy lifting might be required. But the harder that muscle is trained to become ambitious, then the more likelihood there is that it will reach Superhero proportions. Who knows what stellar results might come about with positivity, self-motivation, satisfaction, and ambition into the mix?
The next time you look in the mirror you could be wearing a Kryptonite cloak.
