Why your comfort zone is holding you back and how aspirational goals can help you grow

I have a young friend starting a business. When I asked is she had aspirational goals for this year, she said, “I had a good first quarter with $20,000 in revenue growth and it looks like I’ll do the same second quarter, too. But, third and fourth quarter might not be so good. So I’m aiming to grow revenue by $60,000 this year. Yeah, I think can make that.”

When I hear someone say, “yeah, I think I can make that,” what they’re really saying is: “I think I can safely make that.”

It’s tempting to stay safely in the comfort zone. The problem is, the comfort zone is defined as what you can achieve without learning anything new. That’s what makes it comfortable.

With an aspirational goal, there is no failure. You either succeed or you learn. In fact, you always succeed because you learn, even if what you learned is that what you tried didn’t work. The outcome matters less than the learning.

Aspirational goals are, by definition, goals you think you might not make. That’s scary because if you don’t make the goal, well, isn’t that failure? The answer is a resounding NO. Usually, even if you fall short of an aspirational goal, you have usually exceeded the goal you would have made if you set a comfort goal. 

If you keep learning, what you learn will ultimately lead to better outcomes, if not now, then next month or next quarter. Unlocking learning is the first step toward surpassing old limits.

Fear Plus Fifteen Percent

It turns out people learn most when they have a 33% to 50% chance of failure.* You have to be willing to risk something, but not too much. If there is more than a 50/50 chance of failure, most people will stop trying to achieve and start trying to limit their losses.

We achieve even more if the goal benefits people other than ourselves. To be sure, a few people are motivated by greed, but the vast majority of us are motivated by our desire to take care of our families, to get respect or stability, and to be part of a larger purpose or a team. Most of us want something more than money if we are going to put in our best efforts.

So how do you set ambitious goals without going too far?  Try this formula: Fear + 15%.

Here’s how it works. My friend is comfortable meeting a revenue growth target of $60K per year, or $15,000 per quarter. OK, that’s great.

But let’s say she is inspired to reach higher. She’s afraid to reach $20,000 in revenue growth quarterly, even though that’s what she is currently doing. So that’s the fear point, $80K in revenue growth for the year. To really stretch and make the goal aspirational, she needs to add an additional 15%, or another $1200, total $92,000 in gross revenue growth. That’s $23,000 a quarter.

If she commits to an aspirational goal, $23,000 in revenue growth per quarter, she might reach $21,000 second quarter. Is that a failure? Absolutely not! It’s 5% over what she would have made if she stayed in her comfort zone shooting for $20,000. 

If she keeps trying, in a few months or even a few quarters, she will get closer and closer to making her $23,000 growth rate per quarter, or even more. The higher goals inspires her to figure out how to do it. At the end of the year, she might even look back and see she grew revenue $25,000 in fourth quarter.

If you start to think of fear as a starting place, rather than place to retreat from, you’ll start learning how to achieve things you never thought you could. 

* The Leadership Machine, Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, Lominger Ltd Inc.