How Scary Goals Transform Us to Who We Need to Be

Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood — Curie

Picture this:

You are born with a stammering disorder. You can barely put a sentence together without breaking. The very thought of delivering a speech to a handful of people frightens you. However, your family is a monarchy and your father passes away suddenly and you have to rise to the throne in an unexpected turn of events.

The year is 1937 in Great Britain, a time when war was raging and Britain had just declared war against Germany. The entire nation looks to you as the new leader to encourage them and deliver guidance during this tough period. Soldiers at the battlefront are eagerly waiting for your insights and the general public needs reassurance during this tumultuous period.

There is no social media at the time. So the only technology available is radio. You have no choice but to deliver a speech to the nation through a live broadcast as is the standard practice.

Given your childhood trauma and past negative experience with public speaking, the very thought of facing the nation scares you!

The movie “The King’s Speech” tells the story of King George VI and his unexpected rise to the throne despite his inability to communicate effectively. He was diagnosed with a stammer at age four and growing up, he dreaded any form of public speaking. Now that he had assumed the throne, public speaking was unavoidable.

The movie tells the story of how King George VI overcame the fear of public speaking and worked hard to deliver the speech to the public eloquently despite his childhood-diagnosed condition of stammering.

Fast forward to the 21st century with its novel technologies of social media, artificial intelligence, and Chat GPT. While the tools at our disposal are more advanced than ever, as humans, we still face the same problem as King George VI:

How to overcome our fears!

Fear holds us back, no matter the goals we seek to achieve. It keeps us focused on the past and worried about the future.

Below are some strategies I have identified to be essential in facing my fears.

Setting big hairy scary goals

A poem by George Herbert, an Anglican priest tells us;

Pitch thy behavior low, thy projects high; So shalt thou humble and magnanimous be: Sink not in spirit; who aimeth at the sky, Shoots higher much, than he that means a tree. A grain of glory mixed with humbleness Cures both a Fever, and Lethargickness.

The poem talks about why we need to aim high and set goals that are bigger than we are. For aiming at the sky, we will shoot much higher than when we focus on a tree.

Another popular quote says;

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

I have observed that when I set higher goals that are beyond what I set as my limit, I end up better off than where I started even if I fail in achieving them.

If you’re aiming for something, even if you don’t achieve it, you’ll still be somewhere better than where you started.

As a writer on Medium, setting goals to write 10 articles per week that are well-researched and that deliver value to your readers may seem too ambitious. Especially where you have a 9–5 job and a family to take care of.

However, setting the scary goal and working hard towards achieving it will transform you and even where you might not achieve your goal, the result will be higher than you anticipated.

You may end up with 6 or 7 good quality articles that will improve your writing.

So, set those scary goals in whatever area you wish. Demand more from yourself and you will discover that you were only limiting yourself.

Henry Ford encourages us;

“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn’t do.”

Connecting your behavior to your goals

Robert Conklin says;

“If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals.”

Once you set those scary hairy goals, say write 10 articles per week, the next step is to ask an important question

“Who do I need to become to reach my goals?”

Of course, if writing 10 articles per week is a new goal for you, you will need to adopt a positive attitude and demonstrate commitment towards this goal.

Connect your goal to the specific behavior that will enable you to achieve them, you can chart a clear path for what will be required to tackle big scary goals.

To be successful, you need to go a further step and take inventory of what is required of you to make your goals a reality. More so, determining how you will sustain the goals within the long-term period.

Clear the detritus from your mind and focus on those goals that feed your values and lead to contentment. Everything else is junk to be discarded on your path to personal success. You can reach your goals but you must be willing to engage in the specific actions that will help you consistently achieve them.

Concluding thoughts

If you are highly interested in changing your life, setting scary hairy goals and changing your behavior to align with them is a sure strategy you can follow.

Keep your vision clear and remain focused on that journey towards your goals.

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