SUMMARY 

• Growing up, my parents used to say to me, “Shoot for the moon and even if you miss, you'll still land amongst the stars.” You’ve probably heard this expression before but if you’re like most people, chances are you’re playing smaller than you could.

• What I've learned in my life is that massive goals truly do generate massive results. In this episode I’ll share my experience with setting ambitious goals that inspired big action and culminated in me becoming the UK’s CEO of the Year. I’ll also teach some practical tools and tips to help you set massive goals that will bring you the massive results you want in your work and life.

• When my coach told me to go for the CEO of the Year Award, I thought he was crazy. But that massive goal sparked all kinds of action that never would have happened otherwise.

• I interviewed top CEOs and leaders to understand what drove their success; I read tons of books on peak performance and leadership to learn as much as I could; I did 360 Reviews with my team to find out how I could improve as a leader. All of this eventually culminated in me achieving my massive goal and winning the award. 

TRANSCRIPT

Growing up, my parents used to say to me, "Shoot for the moon. And even if you miss, you'll still land amongst the stars". You may have heard that before and you might think, "Oh yeah, that's a great expression", and may not think much more of it. However, the truth is you might not be playing as big as you could. Somewhere along the line, you might have lost your dream, you might have stopped shooting for the moon so that you could land amongst the stars. What I've learned in my life is that massive goals truly do generate massive results.

Hi, my name is Eric Partaker and I help CEOs, entrepreneurs, and individuals close that gap between who they are and who they're capable of being so that they can achieve that peak performance level in their life, get to that next level, reach their full potential. 

When it comes to setting massive goals, sometimes we can be afraid to do that. We can be afraid that, well, you know what, if it doesn't work out, what if I look like a fool? Or what if I take that risk and I lose, and I don't get the game that I'm seeking, or we might think that the journey, doing that goal, pursuing that goal, that it might just be too difficult, might be too hard, but from a motivation point of view, if you think back in your life, there's probably examples where you can remember that you have achieved in a way that was bigger than you expected. There's probably people in your family or friends who have done something similar, and if they can do it, you can do it as well.

It's just about making sure that you remind yourself of those reasons and that you also take that goal and chunk it down appropriately, making it achievable. But today I want to share with you five reasons why massive goals can create massive results for you. And I have to start with sharing. Well, what was the original inspiration for this? You know, I had heard that expression from my parents as a kid, and I certainly tried my hand at it, but it was when I worked at Skype that I really saw it blossom. I really saw its potential. Our tagline when we were building Skype in it's very early days was the whole world can talk for free. And I can't say that that tagline, that massive goal, was what accounted for all of our success and for our sale to eBay for $4 billion, but I can say that it certainly had a huge impact on the company. Certainly had a huge impact on all of us and really got us going and generated the results that were matching to a goal like that. 

Now setting massive goals for you and your business is a massive productivity driver for a few reasons. Number one, it forces you to commit before you're ready. This is the biggest productivity killer. This is the biggest reason why people play too small, and don't achieve what they're capable of because they feel like they need to be ready. They need to have done more before they're willing to commit; before they're willing to get started; before they're willing to try; before they're willing to put themselves out there - but the beauty of picking a massive goal, a goal that's so big, so grand, so seemingly beyond reach like the whole world can talk for free, is that you have no choice but to commit before you're ready. You could spend a lifetime and maybe a hundred more to feel like you're actually ready to pursue a goal like that. So it inspires you to take action. And that's super important from a productivity point of view and from an achievement point of view in your life, because it gets you moving, it gets you off the seat. It gets you going after whatever that thing is. 

The number two reason why setting massive goals is such a huge productivity driver and generates massive results is that it gets you dreaming again. Somewhere along the way we lose our sense of dreaming, right? When we were kids, we thought anything was possible. There is no limit to our dreams. We thought we could do anything we put our minds to. And along the way people tell us or our own experiences suggest that maybe that's not possible. We start reigning things in. We used to play big and we started playing a little bit less than big and then a bit medium and suddenly small.

And then as the years go by and decades go by suddenly we can be wondering well, where was the big life that I was going for, right? So by setting a massive goal, it gets you dreaming again. And when you dream again, you start thinking about things that create enjoyment in your life; that put a deep smile on your face. And it's always more exciting to pursue things that get us smiling, things that we would enjoy, things that really tap into our dreams. 

So number one, massive goals force us to commit before we're ready. Number two, they enable us to dream big again. And number three, setting massive goals will make you hyper aware of your time. Why is that important? Because too much time gets wasted. Often that time is being wasted, doing small menial things that aren't going to have a huge impact in our life.

But at first setting really, really big goals allows us to become hyper aware of our time because the goal is so big and it requires so much of us that we have to be super conscious of where every single minute is going. We have no choice. And by becoming more hyper aware of our time or becoming more productive, that massive goal then is bringing us closer to achieving those massive results. 

The fourth reason why massive goals help create massive results is because they force commensurate action. So when you set a massive goal, you will have to break that down into even the sub components of that goal will probably be bigger than anything you would have associated with a smaller goal. So it's forcing you to really step up your actions, really step up the kind of effort that you're going to be putting into whatever it is that you're pursuing, but the fifth.

And what I think is the most important benefit of setting massive goals is that it forces you to be dead honest with your deficiencies. As I was on my journey from founding my company to scaling it as a CEO, I noticed a lot of deficiencies in my leadership. I voiced those deficiencies with my coach at the time, and we both kind of set our focus on, well, let's create a CEO development plan that will help me shore up the gaps. But then my coach said, well, why don't you actually go for the CEO of the year award, which I thought was absolutely ridiculous. I wanted to improve as a CEO, but going for the CEO of the year award. That feels a bit like overkill, but sure enough, that massive goal generated massive results. It also inspired me to take action that I know hands down, I would not have taken without that goal in sight.

So I ended up interviewing top performing CEOs around the world to understand what drove their success. I read tons of books on peak performance and leadership, trying to understand how I might improve as a leader. And I did three sixties with my team to understand what it was that I was missing, that they thought was important from their perspective, and all of that work over a two year journey of improvement culminated in receiving that recognition of CEO of the year. So here's my question for you. Where are you playing small in line? Where are you playing? Small and business. And where could you set two or three massive goals that could help you achieve a level of results that you couldn't have even fathom before? Because you can achieve far more than you realize.