4 Signs You’ll Actually Achieve Your Most Insane Goals in Life
“It’s just a matter of time.”
When you decide to go after extraordinary achievements in life, a question that haunts you forever is:
“Will I actually be able to pull it off?”
And for good reason. You work so hard. You sacrifice so much. So you want to know if there’s light at the end of the tunnel, or was it all for nothing. That’s where these signs come in. Of course, there’s no definitive answer. Whether there’s light at the end of the tunnel or not can only be known by reaching the end of the tunnel.
However, there are signs that suggest that you actually will achieve those goals you’ve been obsessing about. Let’s talk about some of them.
“It’s just a matter of time”
In his book Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins, a retired Navy SEAL, talks about the time he set out to achieve a Guinness world record for the highest number of pull-ups completed in 24 hours. At the time the record was 4020 pull-ups held by Stephen Hyland — which is pretty insane.
On David’s first attempt, he could only do 2500 pullups. On his second attempt, he managed to do a little over 3200 pullups before he couldn’t continue.
But David wouldn’t give up. So he tried again.
When he was in a lot of pain during his third attempt, David describes how he found the motivation to keep going.
“I went ugly. I went dark. I imagined my pain was the creation of a mad scientist named Stephen Hyland, the evil genius who was in temporary possession of my record and my soul. It was him. He was torturing me from across the globe, and it was up to me and only me to keep piling up numbers, and steamroll towards him, if I wanted to take his soul.”
The bolded lines tell us something very important about David’s mindset. In his head, he already had broken the record for most pullups. He felt as though the record was already his, and he had just loaned it to Stephen. He truly, unequivocally believed as though it was just a matter of time when the record would truly be his.
This “It’s just a matter of time” mindset is a sign that even you’ll achieve your most insane goals in life. Since in your head, you’ve already achieved it: sooner or later, you’re going to manifest it in life — because you won’t sit still until that happens.
“The most important day”
Broadly divided, there are two types of days in your journey towards your goals
- Days you feel like showing up.
On such days, both ordinary and extraordinary people show up. - Days you don’t feel like showing up
On such days, ordinary people think: “Well, it’s just one day. It’s okay if I skip.” And so they skip. On the other hand, an extraordinary person knows this and thinks, “Any ordinary person would not show up on such a day. So if I can summon the power to show up today, I can differentiate myself from the crowd.” And they show up anyway.
So if you think about it this way, the day you don’t feel like putting in the work is in fact “The Most Important Day” of your journey because it’s the separator. If you truly understand the importance of such days and act accordingly, it’s a sign that you’ll achieve your most insane goals: because you’ve beaten the competition.
Making luck insignificant
Medical students in India like myself have to sit for an entrance exam to get into residencies. And you get seats according to what your ranks are. We’re often told that the top 10 students are very similar in their competence and the difference in their ranks is just a matter of one or two questions: which students often guess. So it is said that this could be attributed to luck; meaning, that Rank 1 is not much greater than Rank 5; and he just got a bit lucky.
However, one of my favourite teachers once said that even though this makes sense, it is possible to make luck insignificant by working extra hard and smart. For instance:
- If Rank 1 scores 522 and rank 2 scores 521, yes, you could attribute that one mark difference to luck.
- However, if Rank 1 scores 530 and rank 3 scores 521, you cannot really attribute that to luck, can you?
The point is, that luck plays a factor in people’s success. By extension, bad luck plays a role in people’s lack of success. However, I’ve realised that I wouldn’t want to fail at achieving my goals just because I didn’t get lucky enough. And so I was taught by someone that even though luck plays a role; it can be made insignificant if you overcompensate for bad luck by working super smart and super hard.
If you’re chasing your goals such that you make luck insignificant, it’s a sign that you’ll achieve whatever the hell you want to in life.
The 10x rule
Most people set mediocre goals because they feel they’ll be easier to attain. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Here’s why:
Mediocre goals promise unattractive rewards which induce looser efforts: which prevents people from even achieving their mediocre goals. For instance, if you’re obese and weigh 100kg and your end goal is to just lose 10 kgs, what are the rewards for such a goal? None. Except for the weighing scale showing a lesser number. The reward isn’t very attractive so you won’t feel like putting in the work.
On the other hand, extraordinary goals promise amazing rewards which induce exceptional efforts: and hence, you’ll achieve those goals. For instance, if you’re obese and weigh 100kg and your end goal is to get a beach body; the rewards for such a goal are many: you’ll feel incredibly attractive, more confident, much healthier and so on… Since the reward is exceptional, you’ll automatically feel like putting in the work.
This is why people who’re crazy enough to set insane goals actually end up achieving them. If your goal seems crazy to people, it’s a sign that you just might end up achieving it.
If not, you can use the 10x rule by Grant Cardone to make your goal such. SImply 10x the size of your goal, drool while imagining the crazy rewards and put in the necessary work.
Recap: 4 signs you’ll achieve your most insane goals in life
- In your head, you already have achieved it. And it’s just a matter of time because it manifests in the real world.
- You understand that the day you don’t feel like putting in the work is the most important day in your journey.
- You work super hard + super smart to rule out a possibility of lack of enough luck.
- You have insane dreams with unimaginable rewards that will actually make you feel like putting in the work.
