Stretch Goals: Go Beyond Your Current Capabilities

Most people set goals they already know they can hit. That's not a goal, that's a to-do list. Real growth lives in the uncomfortable space between where you are and where you're not sure you can get to.

A stretch goal is an achievement that is beyond your current capabilities. Or sometimes your current perception of your capabilities. If you think you can do 5 pull ups and you have a coach who tells you to jump up on the bar and do 10, then he set a challenging stretch goal for you. You probably will not do 10, but you might actually do 7, which takes you beyond your previously perceived capabilities.

Often a seemingly impossible stretch goal is exactly the push we need to get us past our preconceived limits. You need to have the guts to bring yourself to do something that you don't think can be achieved, because your pursuit of it can bring your abilities up to a level that they need to be at to actually get it done.

This kind of growth doesn't happen when you keep aiming for things that were just as doable as what you've done before.

The discomfort you feel when you set a real stretch goal? That's not a warning sign. That's the signal that you're finally in the right territory. The goal doesn't have to be reachable, it has to be worth chasing. Because the version of you that falls short of impossible is still further ahead than the version of you that never tried.

The ceiling you see is not the ceiling that exists; aim beyond it, and watch your limits redefine themselves.