A New Way To Think About Goals & Achievement

I was just watching a video by Brian Johnson where he was talking about Steve Chandler‘s (excellent) book Wealth Warrior (I highly recommend you watching the video (especially the bit about the dominoes) and reading Steve’s book).  About 7:50 in he starts talking about our Current reality and our imagined Ideal; he used the idea of a rubber band between the two, but I’d like to make my own metaphor.

Imagine there’s some distance between where you on something and where you’d like to be (the Current/Ideal gap) and you have a Hook, a length of Rope and the strength in hands/arms/etc. that let you hold on, and pull yourself along the rope.

Let me explain:

The Hook

The sharpness and ability-to-hold of your Hook is your belief in yourself and the sureness you have that you’ll do the work required to do what it takes. If you don’t believe you can do what is necessary and do see yourself persevering, your hook is dull and won’t hold.

Also, the holding power of your hook is directly in proportion to how much you deeply, truly, authentically want something. If your goal isn’t authentic, if it isn’t yours, your hook won’t hold, or will slip easily.

The Rope

The length of your rope is your ability to think big about what you want and what you’re capable of (and your history of doing scary, difficult, arduous and new things). As you do more, and achieve more, you will be able to see further out, your rope will lengthen and you’ll be able to throw it farther. But, at first, your rope is shorter than it otherwise could be.

The Pull

Your ability to be present and awareness and your “life skills” are your pull. As you learn, grow and develop, your “grip-strength” and ability to pull yourself along your Rope increases. At first though, your strength is not what it could be.

How It Works

First you decide you want to make a change or achieve a goal. You then throw your hook out to your Ideal. Then you begin the process of pulling yourself along the rope to your goal.

To the extent that any of your “tools” are weak, you will have trouble.

But, if your “tools” are strong and well-developed, you will succeed.