Not reaching your goals fast enough? Then you’re like the vast majority – and your biggest challenge is keeping your focus. If you stick with it, you reach the magic turning point, where things start to roll on their own.
All progress is like pushing a car. At the start, it takes four people’s strength to get the car moving, but once it’s rolling, one person’s effort can keep accelerating the tonne-heavy car.
At the start, you spend 100% of your energy pushing and 0% of your energy steering. Once the car is rolling and racing along, it’s the other way round. That’s what many people see as the goal: that we can just steer and don’t have to push.
Your magic turning point is the day when you can spend more energy steering than pushing – and the feeling is fantastic. The feeling of your projects picking up speed makes it all worth it.
If you feel things are going too slowly, it isn’t because you’re doing something wrong, but because you haven’t pushed for long enough. Many people think they can get the car rolling with one quick shove. The truth is, it takes a long, hard slog.
It takes raising the bar – and the remarkable baker I once met is a fantastic example of that.
A few years ago, I talked about it with Steen Skallebæk, who founded Denmark’s biggest bakery.
After Steen Skallebæk got his trade certificate from Kvickly in Vojens, he started out at a small, local bakery in Haderslev. He soon took over the business and had a 10-metre queue of customers every day. Then Steen built Denmark’s biggest bakery, with 25 tills and 2 drive-in hatches.
Today, Steen sells 20,000 breakfast rolls on a Saturday. It doesn’t matter that only 25,000 people live in Haderslev and the surrounding area, because customers happily drive 50 km to eat Steen’s bread.
When I met Steen, I asked him what it was he did, and Steen answered: “Every day since I started as an apprentice, I’ve asked myself the same question: can’t we do it a little better today?” Instead of setting unrealistic goals, do what Steen does. Raise the bar a little – and do it every day!
Far too many people overestimate what they can achieve in a year
– and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
– and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade.
Treat your goals the way you’d treat your relationship. There, you don’t turn up with flowers every six months and expect the passion to flourish.
If your goals are to stay alive and give you energy, they have to be tended and cared for, like everything else you want to keep alive. If the goal dies, it’s because you haven’t given it enough attention.
You reach your goal by raising the bar a little at a time – and by doing it every day.
/Martin
– Thank goodness it’s almost Monday!
– Thank goodness it’s almost Monday!
