Set Ambitious Goals to Unlock Your Potential
The Science: Challenging Goals Fuel Better Performance
Psychologists Edwin Locke and Gary Latham developed what's now known as Goal-Setting Theory, one of the most widely supported theories in organizational psychology. Their research shows that specific and challenging goals consistently lead to higher performance than vague or easy goals.
In their words: “A goal is effective in motivating behavior to the extent that it is specific and difficult.” — Locke & Latham, 2002
Why? Because difficult goals push us to focus, strategize, and persist. They activate our brain’s reward systems more powerfully than mediocre goals do, flooding us with dopamine as we anticipate achieving something meaningful.
My Personal Lesson: Limits are Flexible
When I was a kid, we used to spend a lot of time at our neighborhood community pool. I liked to challenge myself to see how far I could swim underwater without coming up for air.
At first, my goal was to make it across a full 25-meter lap. I’d push off the wall and swim hard, and became desperate to breathe as I got close. But I’d always make it, surfacing just as my hand touched the other side.
But one day, I decided to raise the goal: instead of just reaching the end, I would turn and swim a quarter of the way back before surfacing. Oddly enough, I didn’t run out of air at the old mark. I made it past the wall, turned, and started to feel the need to breathe only after I’d pushed off. I was surprised that I made my new goal.
So I set a new goal: halfway back. Same thing – I had no need to breathe at the wall, passed the quarter mark, and didn’t feel desperate until I neared the new target. I increased the goal to 1 and ¾ – same thing. And then, I was swimming two full laps underwater, something that once seemed impossible. And I didn’t feel the need to breathe until nearing that new goal.
I noticed the same thing with push-ups. If my goal was 20, numbers 19 and 20 were slower and harder. But if my goal was 30, I flew past 20 without any effort, and didn’t struggle until the last few.
The lesson? We tend to hit whatever ceiling we set. Move the ceiling, and your capacity follows.
And research backs this up, at least for physical effort: Fatigue is a mental construct.
This is from The Mindful Body by Ellen Langer:
"I asked people in one of my classes to ask their friends to do either 100 or 200 jumping jacks and ask them to tell them when they got tired. Both groups reported that they experienced fatigue about two-thirds of the way through the activity. That means that the first group got tired after about 65-70 jumping jacks, but the second group didn't get tired until after about 130-140."
Takeaway: We mentally structure tasks into a beginning, middle, and end. Regardless of the length of the task, we start to experience fatigue halfway through, with it peaking 75% of the way through.
Great Minds Agree: Aim Higher
“The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” — Michelangelo
“If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success.” — James Cameron
“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.” — Norman Vincent Peale
These are more than motivational platitudes – they’re strategic truths.
Why We Don't Aim Higher (and Why We Should Anyway)
So why don’t more people set bold goals?
Fear of failure. If we fall short, we might feel embarrassed or disappointed. So we protect our ego by setting easy goals.
False limits. We underestimate how far we can push ourselves.
Comfort zone thinking. We stick with what’s easy and familiar.
But the cost of staying safe is stagnation.
As James Clear says in Atomic Habits: “You should be far more concerned with your current trajectory than with your current results.”
Your Turn: What’s Just Beyond Your Reach?
Take a moment and think about a goal you have in your life right now.
What if you increased it by 25%? What if you doubled it?
What changes would you have to make and what actions would you have to take to hit that bigger goal?
What would it feel like to actually hit that target?
You may not hit it on the first try, or maybe even not at all. That’s okay. You’ll still have gone farther than you ever would have by playing small. Easy goals make comfortable lives. Great goals make meaningful ones.
Final Thought: Your Potential Lives Beyond the Line
Every time I’ve set a goal pushing beyond what I believed was reasonable, I found I could reach it, or at least come very close.
That’s what we want for you, too.
Set your goals high – because it's the only way to grow into the person you're meant to be. Your next level won’t show up until your goal dares it to.
Your happiness and your success live just outside your current reach.
Looking for some guidance on developing motivating goals? Take our free Design Your Ideal Life course.
