I’ve always asked people to become visionaries for their own lives, to hope for – and inspire toward – a bigger vision. This involves the unique challenge I gave you last week of writing your 101 goals. Many tell me that they manage the first 30 or 40 without much problem, then slow to a snail’s pace as they work through their deepest desires and most closely held dreams.
Oddly though, it’s those last few – the goals that may seem the most far out – that come true in shortest order. In fact, I’ve seen this work so many times that I’ve become a fan of adding just 10 more goals to your final list of 101 – I call it the 10 Outrageous Goals list.
The making of your 10 Outrageous Goals goes way, way beyond the common mortal’s dreams and schemes. These are real brain blasters that make Silly Putty of your imagination. Put yourself to the task of dreaming up 10 Outrageous Goals and you’ll find that what initially looks intrinsically impossible to complete actually has small nooks and crannies of solution, much like a sheer rock wall possesses toeholds and crevices to take you up.
You’ll find, too, that as you solutionize your 10 Outrageous Goals, your mind becomes more agile and quick at creating paths and finding answers to your original list of 101 goals. And, conversely, the more practiced and adept you become at achieving one goal after another, the more similarity you’ll find between the paths that handled your 101 goals, and those that begin to accomplish a really Outrageous Goal.
So how do you go about deciding your 10 Outrageous Goals?
It’s easy. Just start with one simple question: What would make everyone better off and no one worse off, while creating a win for you and a win for the universe?
Once you’ve written the goal, ask yourself these questions:
- Is it in alignment with who I am?
- How much of a Goosebump Factor does this entail? (To do something that could help a ton of people all over the world has to be worth goose bumps.)
- How do I get this done?
There’s a chance you haven’t thought outrageously in a long time. So, I’m going to help you out by sharing my outrageous list of just 4 of my goals with you:
1. Sell a billion books and change the world, one story at a time.
2. Feed unfed humanity expeditiously and omni-considerately
3. Reforest the earth with 18 billion trees within this decade, by 2010.
4. Inspire the creation of one million millionaires in a single decade.
Years ago, when I first wrote my 10 Outrageous Goals, I couldn't see a possible solution to any one of them. But that didn’t matter. Remember, we only have to concentrate on the what, not the how. Just write your Outrageous Goals and the how’s will eventually show-up. I mean, who thought I’d ever come CLOSE to selling a billion books until the Chicken Soup for the Soul idea landed right in front of me? With this series, we’ve sold millions and millions of books - more than even the world’s best-selling authors. See … no matter how outrageous you may think your goal to be, there’s some kind of something out there that knows how to give it to you, mark my words.
