What’s the difference between not just setting goals, but setting MASSIVE goals?

Grant Leboff: Everybody knows about goal setting but you talk about not just setting goals but setting massive goals. So what’s the difference? Why is it so important to set massive goals?

David Hyner: Can I answer that second? [laughs] Grant hates me right now!

I love what you first said in that ‘everyone knows how to set goals’. I have been amazed, speaking to between 10 to 50,000 people every year, how few people actually know how to set goals. It really staggered me. I work with Chief Exec groups, down to students in high school… hardly anyone truly knows how to set goals. And it was myself included. But when we interviewed really successful people, there was one word that constantly leapt out when I said ‘How do you set goals?’ and that was the word MASSIVE.

Now if they set massive goals, this was really grating with me because, I’m sure you’ve heard of the acronym smart goals [e.g., Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Realistic, Time-based] or ‘realistic and achievable targets’. Because I was a skeptical Brummy [grew up in Birmingam, Midlands, UK] I thought I need to do more research I need to find out who invented smart goals what’s it based upon. Because if everyone is being taught SMART goals how can top achievers set massive goals and become top achievers? So I tracked down George T. Doran.

George T. Doran was a project manager in the United States who worked on colossal utility projects and he came up with the acronym ‘SMART’. Sadly, he was misquoted. You see everyone quotes him as saying ‘your goal should be smart’. I’ve not actually found that quote and I’ve done a lot of looking. What I actually found is several pieces of information where he’s quoted as saying things like; ‘when working on a large project, the steps to your goal should be smart’. So if we’re working towards large goals and all the top achievers, so far 250 out of 250 have said things like; ‘massive goals’ the steps to your massive goal should be realistic and achievable, not the goal. The goal should be colossal. If that’s what you want.

Grant Leboff: So just so people understand, what’s the difference in your world between setting a normal goal, as people would see it, and then setting a massive goal?

David Hyner: Great distinction. The first thing we must allow ourselves, is the fact that we’re individuals and your massive goal, for me, might be seem realistic and achievable. Vice versa, my massive goal to you may seem realistic and achievable. For some people their massive goal is learning to read, learning a new language, being the best mother / father that they can be.

For other people it’s I want a multi-million pound business in five years. It might be for some people it’s I want to turn my hobby into my business. I want to be a world sporting champion. I want to play on stage with Queen and whatever your massive goal is, that’s OK. Don’t let anybody ever tell you what your goals should be, because most of us are quick to look at other people and put our assumptions onto them. So goals are individual – but I would say the difference between a realistic goal, or step to a massive goal, and ‘the massive goal’ is that the incremental steps should be very specific, easily achieved and attainable. Where as the massive goal should be a real stretch.

Frequently I joke with people when showing them our goal setting process. If they say to me; Dave I want a five million turnover business in five years, I’ll go wow! A 10 million turnover business in three years, that’s remarkable! It goes back to the children’s joke about how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! You break down the colossal into a realistic and achievable. Every single step towards a massive goal, as long as it looks and feels achievable to you. Then I ask the question – so what’s stopping you? Frequently it’s only feelings and emotions; nothing tangible. So if we can muster our feelings and emotions, what’s stopping us… really?

Grant Leboff: So you’re setting your massive goal and then you’re working back from that, into the specific, achievable steps. Do you work back from the top, back to the…

David Hyner: There are a couple of ways of doing it. One way is to work backwards from the goal. Listing all the steps and then prioritising them into realistic and achievable, and the most important and the scary ones. Another way of doing it is to get a group of people who have already achieved what it is you want to do – and that’s critical – find people at the very highest level who have done what it is you want to do and find out how they think, how they behave, what did they do? They will save you making so many mistakes.

Kris Akabusi the athlete, he calls it looking into people, not up to them. And we’ve had students get mentored by Barack Obama. We’ve had students become British European world sporting champions. We’ve had incredible success with business people and students, just by going away and getting the right information. Instead of being scared of what they don’t know and don’t understand, all of a sudden they see that as the strength because that’s where I’m going to get one big step up. I’m sure in your business of marketing that people’s biggest successes come in the information that they then apply rather than just obtaining information. It’s about the application. It’s about taking action, getting the right advice and setting MASSIVE goals.

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