Happy New Year and welcome to 2019!
50 years ago, U.S. President John F. Kennedy said…
“This nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, in the coming decade, of sending a man to the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”
And that was the first “moonshot goal.”
JFK coined the term when he dared to envision a dream so big that most Americans couldn’t even conceive of it.
According to The Harvard Business Review there are 3 characteristics of a moonshot goal:
1) It’s inspirational
It’s something that inspires the best in humanity. It inspires our creativity our ingenuity and our ability to innovate and evolve the world we live in.
2) It’s credible
Before JFK declared his goal, he had his team research if it was possible and they found that it was.
3) It’s imaginative
It’s not an obvious extrapolation from where we are today. It’s a bit of a departure, a shift from where we are now to something that we are becoming.
Astro Teller who’s head of X — formerly Google X — defines it like this:
An Entrepreneurial moonshot is going 10x bigger while the rest of the world is trying to grow by just 10%.
Now, you can’t grow 10x by simply working harder. You can’t put in more hours or more time. You’ve got to work smarter. You’ve got to unleash your creativity and your ingenuity on what’s possible.
Burn the Freakin’ Bridge
You might have guessed that I’m talking about moonshot goals because today, January 1st, is historically the day when humans dare to dream bigger than they dream the other 364 days of the year.
And right now, you might be wondering how you can even start to imagine those 10x goals.
I found the answer in a conversation I had with a billionaire by the name of Naveen Jain. Naveen is in the process of starting a brand, new company called Viome and his goal, his mission, is to make illness optional.
That’s a gigantic goal that most humans wouldn’t even be able to imagine!
When I asked him how he started on a project that’s so big, so vast, that most humans can’t even comprehend the possibility, he said this…
“When you start something, never worry about how you’re going to get there. Don’t focus on what things are, but what they can be. When you’re focused and mission-driven, you’ll cross the bridge when you get there. And when you cross the bridge, you burn the bridge behind you because everyone has the tendency to go back to what’s comforting.”
So, never think about where you are. Lead from where you’re going because you have the ability to cross that bridge and burn it!
But if you allow what is to define what can be for you, you’ll never leave the incremental world of 10% growth.
Inevitability Thinking
It’s been said that most people underestimate what they can do in 10 years and overestimate what they can do in 1 year.
So, as you’re setting goals on January 1st, I want to encourage you to look beyond 2019 and set a moonshot goal. Dream bigger, set your sights higher and think about what’s possible for you not in 2019 but in the next decade.
Peter Diamandis, who’s one of my favorite thinkers and innovators of all time, says that:
When you give yourself permission to think about a problem as if it were already solved, the solution becomes possible.
This is something called inevitability thinking.
And when you leverage inevitability thinking in your life and your goals, it really gives you permission to open up to a whole new level of creativity.
So, I’m encouraging you to NOT just set New Year’s resolutions — not just set goals for the next 12 months — but to really look at the next 10 years, to what’s possible when you align your life and what you do every single day, with what you’re here to do.
My parents couldn’t imagine driverless cars but now, automation and Artificial Intelligence is going to handle so much of the everyday that it’s going to liberate our minds for the not-so-everyday.
And the thing that’s not replaceable by Artificial Intelligence, by outsourcing, by machines, by automation, by any of that, is human creativity and ingenuity.
This is Just the Beginning…
So how can you start to reach beyond what is on this earth that we live on and reach for the sun, the moon, the stars and beyond?
Because “beyond”, my friend, is actually possible and inevitability thinking will get you just about anywhere.
When you start to reframe what’s possible and extend the timeline in which it’s possible…
When you apply the principles of inevitably thinking, when you unleash your imagination, your ingenuity and your creativity on the problem you’re here to solve; and when you start to think beyond what you can do now in the next year to what you can do in the next decade and in your lifetime…
Anything and everything becomes possible. So, what is it that you want to devote your life to? What’s the problem you want to solve? What’s the solution you want to deliver?
Let me know in the comments.
2019 is just the beginning of the work that you’re here to do in the world.
So, Happy New Year my friend!
Thank you for being in my life!
I can’t wait to show you what my moonshot goals look like now and over the next decade because I’m not stopping anytime soon.
That’s why I held a free 3-hour live virtual workshop on Thursday!
I introduced the 3-page Strategic Planning Template that I use with my top clients to help them create a big vision for their business and a detailed roadmap for how to get there.
This template has literally added millions to my bottom line and those of my clients.
It was that powerful.
We had lots of people asking us for a replay, so if you didn’t have a chance to join us — or if you just want to soak up all of this business-building goodness again — I’ve shared a copy of the recording (which is only available until Saturday at midnight PT).
So make sure to check out the replay and fill out the Strategic Planning Template before it’s gone for good.
Let’s make 2019 the best, most abundant most successful and most FUN year ever…
Now go out there and Live Your Message 🙂
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