Sheldon Mills: Welcome to Habit Masters. I'm Sheldon. I'm Jeff. And we have a fun, perhaps controversial episode today. I don't think so once we get into it, but, uh, smart goals is what it's all about. But before we get going, I know Jeff is just roaring to refute why smart goals really aren't that smart. before that, just wanted to let you guys know that we are kicking off a weekly news letter. We're calling it magic.
So go, please sign up for that. And, if you do that, well, we have an ebook that we are, kicking out here shortly, and we'll send that to you for free. And then 20% off our course as well. So Magic Monday, you go sign up.
Jeff Corrigan: Yes, do it. It's gonna be amazing. You guys will love it. So today, as Sheldon said, we're going to put SMART goals in their place because they're not as smart, As some may say, .
So first, let's talk about what a smart goal is, right? Everybody's heard of this. Hopefully, if you listen to this podcast, I'm guessing you've heard of what a smart goal is. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound or timely. And they change the words occasionally, but essentially they all say the same thing.
Here's the two of that group that we take issue with. Attainable. and realistic, and here's why. Because when you think about it as realistic and attainable from your current, State you don't understand what your future self will know. And if goals are really about becoming and not achieving, which I believe they are, goals should be about becoming someone new, not necessarily achieving a result.
Because results are something you attract, not something you pursue. As Jim Ro likes to say, success is not. Something you pursue. It's something you attract by becoming an attractive person. And that is what a goal really should do, is help you become someone new. And the only way to become someone new is to not know how to do it.
So a smart goal is it's all based around you already knowing what and how to do something. But a good goal should force you to solve a problem you don't already know how to solve, and in fact, solve a problem that you might feel as your current self is impossible to solve.
Sheldon Mills: A, a goal should be a means of transformation. Not a time-bound miserable achievement. Right. Don't give, we, we were talking about this quite a bit.
In our course, we talk about, there's your bigger goal. This is your why. This is what you're trying to approach a mm-hmm. , a future vision. That's more than you are now. But one action to get there is to, what's it called again?
Jeff Corrigan: You're one priority action. One
Sheldon Mills: priority action,
Right. Which is a lot more ache in to what a smart goal is. Right. It's like the thing you can do, if we could change it smart to be, you know, realistic, it'd be, we'd call it right now, this is the thing you can do right now. Yeah. To make it happen, but it's, it's just part of the bigger vision. Right? Yeah. A goal should be a vision which your, your current self can't yet realize because you're not capable of those things.
Like Jeff was saying, like, yeah, goals, goals should change the way you think, the way you see the world, the way you experience it, and it should take you from solving problems of, of Jeff, we call it survival to growth contribution, right? Mm-hmm. your ability to solve bigger and better problems. That's what a goal.
Jeff Corrigan: Absolutely. And, and so really it's gonna create in you someone new because you're gonna have to think differently. You're gonna have to act differently, and you're gonna have to find better solutions than the solutions you currently have or that you've thought about. And so there's a great example that Sheldon's gonna, reiterate here from Ben Hardy that he shares in his book 10 x, which isn't even out yet.
So , we got a little precursor to this guys. share him with him.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. So he's in this mastermind. And someone puts out the question and it's like, okay, how do you increase your revenue? 10%? Right? And I think his name is Dr. Bernard. At some point he kind of interjects, and you can. . He goes into like his expertise and like thinking and kind of like how he's qualified to , to interrupt him,
And he goes, that's actually a terrible question, right? Because there are a million ways to change something. 10%, right? Mm-hmm. , that is you're grinding harder, not thinking differently about the problem. And he says, A better question is, how can I 10 x this? Right? Because there a number of avenues. To go to 10 times.
The amount is far less, and there's still probably lots of avenues to get there. Not millions, but probably hundreds or I don't know how many, you know, you could quantify it. Mm-hmm. . But in order to do that, you'd have to radically change the way you think and approach the problem. , right? And that's what a goal should be doing.
Yeah. It should. It's not a, it's not a grind harder, two x, you know? Mm-hmm. , which you're already capable of. It's, it's a transformation into more capability and abilities.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. And he actually has a quote in here that I think we should read about this. It's from Dr. Bernard. He says, to make a goal effective, you've gotta test it outer limit.
Push it out as far as you can. Only once you make your goals impossible will you stop operating based on your current assumptions and knowledge, which is where we want to get to, right? We wanna stop operating based on our current knowledge and assumptions, because that's what's keeping us where we are, right?
If we want growth right now, acting as our current self, we're gonna have to work a lot harder. . But if we want 10 x growth, we're gonna have to find a different way to work entirely. That's why I'm saying smart goals aren't that smart because all they do is cause you to work harder, not smarter. And really a 10 x goal is a thing that rearranges your brain and says, oh, I have to look at this problem from an entirely new perspective and find solutions I haven't even considered in the past.
And possibly resources and collaboration and innovation that didn't exist in the past.
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Only once the goal is perceived as impossible, will you stop defaulting your current assumptions and approaches.
Jeff Corrigan: He uses a really great example in there about an entrepreneur that he's talking to and he says, okay, so let's say for example, you want to grow a million dollars in your business in the next 12 months. Can you think of some ways to do that? Do you feel like that's possible?
And he's like, yeah, that's possible. He's like, okay. What about if you wanted to grow your. 10 times that. Right? What would it take to do 10 million in the next 12 months? Can you, does that seem possible? And the entrepreneur's like, well, no, not really. And he's like, that's where you have to start. And he's like, what are some solutions that might get 10 million in the next year?
Because you have to start operating and acting as a new you. And this is how your goals should really be focused is how can I start operating as someone new, not as my current self improving, but as an entirely new being. Take a Caterpillar, for example, right? I used this example with Sheldon. What was my quote the other day?
Sheldon Mills: Yeah. Here it is. Working harder is two x mentality is it's trying to make the caterpillar crawl faster, but a 10 x mentality is turning into a butterfly.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. Like a caterpillar doesn't believe it can fly. Right. It has to go through the whole process of transformation before it can fly.
What a 10 x goal does for you. It transforms you from the caterpillar trying to run faster and sweating it out to the butterfly. Fluttering around effortlessly in essence. But there with this comes this notion that, okay, well 10 X sounds really hard, right? Some of the false beliefs around 10 X are that 10 X is just 10 working 10 times harder, but that's not true, right?
Sheldon? why not? That's what I'm asking you.
Sheldon Mills: Why not? Because it's, it's not working 10 times as hard. It . Is a shift in the way you approach and think about things that makes it 10 x different, right? Mm-hmm. , it's like we used the example going to California.
Well, two x is going from like crawling to walking to running. Well, 10 x would be taking an airplane, right? Yeah. And it's not harder, it's just different. And it's, different from our current capabilities. It's just a new approach and, and for your future self, it's not right. Yeah. But until you try and become and do those things, then you'll never become that future
Jeff Corrigan: self.
Yeah. Your future. Has solved this problem. It knows, oh, I shouldn't run to California. I just need to buy a plane ticket. , right? It's like, oh, okay, got it. Like someone else can fly the plane. And that's, that's the beauty of a 10 X mindset is you start thinking, okay, I can't do this on my own, who can help me?
Right? And you really get into the game of who, not how, which is the best place you can be for getting tasks done and achieving greater results while doing the same or less work. That's where a 10 x goal should take you. It should be creating more while doing.
Sheldon Mills: Right, and we are totally harping on like smart goals
And there's nothing wrong with it, if I'm honest. Like it's part of the process. It's just only a portion of it. And we fear, I fear that too many people, if it's not time bound, if it's not achievable current, you know, in your current state, then people. Think it's not a goal, right? Mm-hmm. , they think it's not something they should strive for.
Here's a quote from Richie Norton, which absolutely love. I know you love this, Jeff, but I'm gonna steal it. Love it. Stop setting goals from your experience. Goals, inside experience are tasks, goals, outside experience are growth. Smart goals are tasks. start studying. Goals are outside your experience and capability.
Jeff Corrigan: That in a nutshell is this whole episode. Right? Maybe we should just let him say it. No, I'm just kidding. . But yeah, exactly. Like anything that's within your experience is just a task, which is why we say it's that one priority action that you can start doing, right? Anything outside your experience is growth.
Those bigger problems, and that's a whole book we're writing about problems you want is based on this principle of look for bigger problems to solve so that it transforms you into someone new. I think there's been a flawed assumption out there, like sure, smart goals are a great starting point. I think Sheldon said it earlier, he said, smart goals are kind of like you're moving from crawling to walking, right?
A 10 x goal, which is the goal. We wanna help you start creating in your life because you're already someone who sets goals. If you're listening to this podcast, it, it 10 x goals are gonna take you from walking to flying. Or even potentially teleporting to your new destination. We've talked about that on a previous episode.
If you wanna go check it out, what was that one called? should just go back and look. But, go check out our previous episode about time hacking or what? I forget what it was. . Put it in the nose. We'll find it. We'll put it in the show notes, folks. Okay. Action plan. How do people take this and run with it?
Sheldon. Okay. So
Sheldon Mills: I feel bad cuz we, we've been harping on sparkles and they're not bad, not bad at all, but it's only one part of the equation, right? I think in order to really have transformation, you have to think, dream and strive for bigger. It's a change in identity. It's a change in the way we approach life.
And that's, it starts with the mindset, the mind shift, right? So a few practical things. We've told these guys before our course. , come on you guys. If you haven't taken it, you're gonna love
Jeff Corrigan: it. Yeah. And if you go sign up for our newsletter with Sheldon to mention it, the first, you get 20% off the course for you and a buddy.
So go check it out. It'll be awesome. . .
Sheldon Mills: And then speaking about mind shift, that is what the whole portion of this ebook that we're, we're working on right now. Con the garden method, it's about how to take radical ownership and that all change starts and ultimately ends with if, if I'm honest, right.
The mind shift. It's the way we see things, it's the way we approach things. Mm-hmm. and it's easy to. like in, just like, say that out loud. I think this, this metaphor, this analogy, this story we're gonna share with you through this ebook is gonna really drive that home. It's gonna help you and anyone who reads it, you know, recognize how much ownership and choice and agency they really have that we're.
Never stuck ever cuz we're human. Mm-hmm. , it's like part of this, you know, I would call it divine, but just like inherent part of being human in ability to choose no matter. What your garden looks like now. It's not your fault necessarily, perhaps that it's where it is, but only you can make the choice to change it.
Mm-hmm. And how you change it. Well, I'm gonna start talking about it too much, but , our last episode. Yeah. Your garden Now. What's
Jeff Corrigan: the last episode you're gonna love? Listen
Sheldon Mills: to the last one. Yeah.
Jeff Corrigan: Yep. But, what that, I think, a big piece of this and kind of the takeaway that we want to give you is that goals.
Should be about becoming, not achieving right and the best goals should transform you into someone new. And that really starts with picking bigger problems. What is a bigger problem you wanna solve? Because it's gonna require better and bigger solutions that require more than what you can do with your sole effort.
It puts you into this position where you've gotta start collaborating and leveraging tools that you weren't before and innovating on things like the biggest problems require innovation, collaboration, and a whole new level of ingenuity. So I feel like the thing you can start doing today is recognize that, okay, my actions that I can take right now, they might be smart, but where I'm going has to be 10 x to really help me change into someone new. It's an
Sheldon Mills: identity shift, right? Which inevitably changes your behavior. Mm-hmm. and the things that you say in things that you do. I mean, ultimately it does and can and will change your behaviors, your actions, your habits, right? Mm-hmm. , but it begins with the shift in identity.
Jeff Corrigan: Yeah. I know just to use a personal example. We run a business right now and we had been working with a certain goal of, of revenue for the past several years, and then I read Future Self and I knew immediately I had a 10 X it because the revenue goals that we had in the past, they were, of course we were going to attain them, not of course, but it was very likely we were going to attain them, but it was gonna require a lot more effort on our.
If we 10 exit, we actually have to change the way we do business fundamentally. And the way we're looking at the problem and saying, how are, how are we going to expand this to a whole new level of, of delivering value to our customers to create this kind of additional revenue? And it's, it's been amazing, the transformation that it's caused in our organization, in me personally, and in what goals we're actually pursuing now.
It's really cool.
Sheldon Mills: I wanna give a little snippet, for our next episode, and we want to talk about, we're gonna call it, I'm distilling, shamelessly stealing this. And we'll put the links in there, there from, this experiment from, an address where she talked about, extreme question.
Right? And then how in life in our family, our relationships in in business, most people don't really need to be told what to do. They just need you to ask better questions. Mm-hmm. . So for next time, look forward to that.
Jeff Corrigan: Ask better questions. Extreme question, challenge. Hey guys, thank you very much for listening to this episode.
We hope you enjoyed this take on smart goals and hope it helps you see things a little differently in how you might attain goals. And if you haven't left us a review on Apple Podcasts and you've liked this episode, please go do so. And anybody who has we thank you a lot. SMART goals
Sheldon Mills: are, Not really. They're just inadequate.
It's just not the big, the full picture. Exactly. You know what I mean? It's, it's just a portion. It's the
Jeff Corrigan: first step. Drive bigger. Exactly. Starting to start living your best life guys.