183: The Truth About Why You Need To Set Goals That Scare You

**Nick Bare** (0:06)
These are five facts about goal setting that I have learned over my personal and professional life so far. And a few years ago, I was sitting down with my good friend, Louis House. He was on my podcast. And we were having a conversation about one of his newer books that he was publishing and releasing. And something he told me I will always remember. And it's about being on mission. Now, mission and goals are very aligned. And he said, a man without a meaningful mission is a dangerous, dangerous man. Someone who does not have a meaningful mission they are pursuing is dangerous, not only to themselves, but to other people around them. And that leads into my first fact. The first fact is that goals provide us targets and prevent us from wondering aimlessly. Wondering aimlessly. As much as I love the way that that sounds, that describes what it looks like and feels like, to live life without a mission, without a goal, I hate it just as much because of how dangerous it can be to wonder aimlessly. I was sitting in church a few weeks ago, and we go to Celebration Church here in Georgetown, Texas. Pastors Joe and Lori Champion lead that church. And something Pastor Joe was saying in one of his sermons, he was encouraging us not to set up camp when we are in the valley. And being in the valley can be darkness, it can be a low, it can be a really challenging, hard time of our life. And what happens to a lot of people is you get to the valley, you get to the hard part of life, and you want to set up camp. You just want to stay there. Because climbing out of it is intimidating, it is scary, it is the unknown. So people set up camp in the valley, and as soon as you set up camp, you're telling yourself and everyone around you, I'm here to stay. I'm here for the long haul. And what we need to do when we find ourself in a valley, and a valley doesn't necessarily have to be a really low part of your life, doesn't have to be a challenging, hardship moment, it can be the lull between two highs, two successes, two wins, two accomplishments. If you look at someone who plays professional sports, if they win the Super Bowl, which is a high, you know, a professional football player wins the Super Bowl, the highest of high they can experience in that professional path. After winning that Super Bowl, there is probably a lull until the next big win or championship. That lull itself might be the valley. What we have to do when we find ourselves in the valley is to throw in our rucksack and climb out towards the other side to the next goal, to the next win. If you find yourself in a valley, wondering aimlessly, you have to set a goal, you have to set a target. Like, where am I going next? In the valley, I identify the next mountaintop, I identify the next goal, I identify the next mission, that's where I'm climbing to. I'm not setting up camp. Because as soon as you set up camp, you're staying there, wondering aimlessly. Now, one of the things they tell us in the military was to aim, shoot and move. As soon as you stop moving, you're a target yourself. And that's the way that I approach life and moving through life. I'm going to aim at my next target, my next objective, my next goal. I'm going to shoot. I'm going to execute. And I'm going to move. I'm going to bound towards that goal, towards that objective, towards that challenge, that enemy, if you will. Aim, shoot, and move.
I have found myself, I won't say many times before, but I have found myself in certain chapters, in seasons, in intersections of my life, wondering aimlessly. And it's typically after a win, or a success, or an accomplishment.
I have recognized that I do not thrive in the absence of goals and targets. And I doubt you do either. Because what happens when we don't have goals, when we don't have targets that we're working towards, that are challenging us, we are wondering aimlessly. We can't aim, which means we have nothing to shoot towards, which means we have no reason to move. Aim, shoot, and move. If I don't have something to aim towards, if I don't have a target, if I don't have a goal, I am wondering aimlessly. And like Lewis Howe says, without a meaningful mission, when you are wondering aimlessly, you are a dangerous, dangerous individual, not just to yourself, but to the people around you as well, to society. I've caught myself saying before, after I accomplish X, Y, and Z, after I finish this race, after my business hits a certain revenue target, after I hire this one individual, I'm going to chill.