5 Key Ingredients to Achieve Big Goals

It was my final session of the year with my weightlifting coach, and I had said I wanted to lift heavy to see where I was on my barbell deadlifts.

But on that day, I wasn’t feeling it. My body hurt. I was having a tough week. My head and heart weren’t in it. I was over it. Like just couldn’t give AF over it.

As we started to warm up, I expressed my change of heart: I didn’t want to lift heavy today. His response:

We’ll see how you feel.

Famous last words.

I went on to have a huge PR, increasing my old milestone by 15 pounds.

That session reinforced a lot of lessons that I have learned over the past year — and, in fact, the past decade. I previously shared many of these lessons on the blog — in a 4-part series that went deep into the weeds.

Sometimes you have to go deep to extract what is most relevant.

As I reflected on that series, I realized it might be more useful to bring it back to the high level. In that vein, I’ve distilled those lessons into 5 core ingredients required to achieve a big goal.

Consider this another big lesson learned — both in my adventures in the gym as well as in my 6+ years of publishing a daily blog:

You always get a chance for a do-over.

Here are the 5 core ingredients for achieving a big goal.

(1) Consistency

Everything starts with consistently showing up and taking action.

Even when you’re tired.
Even when you don’t feel like it.
Even when it seems like the action is a waste of time.
Even when you’re over it.
Even when you’re “too busy” and don’t “have time.”
Even when you believe you’re producing crap.
Even when you feel like you can’t give your best effort.
Even when you feel like you can’t move.
Even when you’re “not motivated.”
Even when you can’t get into a flow.

Too often, we search for motivation before we start to move, which can keep us stuck.

Instead of relying on motivation to trigger movement, use movement to trigger motivation. Once you start moving, you start producing the chemicals that drive further action. This will build momentum.

Maybe you’ll produce crappy work, but here’s the truth: you never know how it will be received.

We don’t make progress by showing up only when we are fully motivated and feeling at our best. We make progress by showing up consistently, over a span of months and years.

Showing up even when you don’t feel like it can turn out to put you in the right place at the right time for an introduction, an opportunity, a viral hit, a new milestone.

You may not have your best day or produce your best work, but you are guaranteed to get no results if you don’t show up.

Days, weeks, months, even years of showing up and doing something — even at your worst — will make a bigger impact than sporadically showing up at your best.

(2) Techniques: Skills and Systems

Contrary to popular belief, practice does not make perfect. Nor does it automatically lead to progress. Consistency is the buy-in for progress. To achieve sustainable growth you must learn proper techniques and master the skills necessary to take action.

In weightlifting, a poor technique will create injury when the load increases. When you have good technique, you’re less sensitive to the increase in the weight on the bar.

The same is true in every other realm. To scale sustainably requires having good systems and skills. Without well-functioning systems built to scale, you will crumble under the heavier loads of increased demand.

(3) Support: Coach and Community

The myth of the solopreneur is rampant, feeding a belief that we can achieve our biggest goals on our own.

This is false. Nobody accomplishes big things alone. It takes a village. Behind every successful solopreneur is often a team of people: therapist, a coach, friends, community, supportive family, assistants, spouses, business partners, and colleagues.

When you “don’t feel like” showing up to do the work, a coach and community can give you the structure that it makes it easier to get started.

A tree doesn’t bloom unless the conditions are right.

Similarly, when we don’t feel a visceral sense of safety in our nervous systems, we can get locked in fight/flight/freeze. Community and coach support provides us with the safety we need to grow and expand our comfort zones.

In addition, you can’t see your own blind spots. What we do naturally is our habit. To grow and evolve we must get out of our habits and learn new ways of being. We can only truly see ourselves through the reflection and actions of other people.

(4) Detachment

One of the most important skills to master in the path to achievement is detachment from outcome.

The more we are attached to a specific outcome, the more defeated we will feel when we don’t achieve it, which can kill confidence and momentum. The paradox of great achievement is that it comes most easily when we aren’t chasing after it.

An archer aims at the target, pulls the arrow back in its bow, and releases it. Once they release the arrow, the archer has no control over where it lands. Likewise, achieving a big goal requires setting our sites toward a direction and taking aligned action. We must recognize, however, that we don’t control all the factors that lead to the desired achievement.

We must trust that our aligned action will get us to our desired destination — and be open to the possibility that it will take us to a different destination that might serve us better.

(5) Ignorance

This is the most counter-intuitive ingredient. Awareness is an important skill in life, and self-awareness is crucial to our personal growth.

That said, when it comes to accomplishing big things, a little ignorance can be a helpful thing.

The biggest challenge to accomplishing a big goal is often conquering the mind. Resistance seems to intensify in proportion to our perception of the level of risks and the stakes involved.

When you don’t realize the magnitude of what you’re trying to do, it’s easier to stay out of your head. Ignorance of the stakes and scope of your goal can help you stay out of second-guessing, doubts, and imposter syndrome.

What would you do if you didn’t know the rules you were “supposed” to follow?

How would you show up if you didn’t know the stakes or the size of the risk?

Ignore the size of the deal or the weight on the barbell and focus on your skills and techniques.