You are so tired.
Because you have been working VERY HARD for longer than you can remember.
And even though you have been reaching your goals lately…
you seem to only be a FEW INCHES closer to your dream.
Your small victories are barely noticeable in the big picture…
and you feel too EMBARRASSED to tell anyone about it.
To be quite honest…
You are FED UP by working your b*tt off for peanuts…
and you DON`T KNOW for how long you are able to keep on going.
Does that sound familiar?
Yeah, I`ve been there too.
And I know it`s not a very pleasant place to be in.
When I discovered the DUMB goals approach, it was a total GAME CHANGER.
Let me show you how to become winner by using the DUMB goals system.
But first, let me talk briefly about WHY you probably AREN`T achieving the big progress you want.
You have probably heard about the SMART goals approach.
It seems that in some cases SMART goals are dumb and DUMB goals are smart (yeah, it`s little tongue twister, I know).
Quick recap, SMART goals stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Relevant
- Time specific
There are several positive benefits regarding SMART goals.
However, there can also be SERIOUS crippling consequences if you ONLY use the SMART goals approach.
The SMART Goals approach is a two-edged sword…
and the exact results from using the approach that can benefit your life , are also the same results that can RUIN your future.
A short recap, using the SMART goals approach is great if you want to set REALISTIC goals that you KNOW you can reach.
On the other hand…
The downside of using the SMART goals approach is…
Can you guess what the negative side with SMART goal setting is?
If you answered that your goals are realistic, and it will not push you out of your comfort zone and reach you truly amazing potential, you are correct.
A flying awesome high five to you *SLAP*
SMART goals approach can function as a straightjacket.
It can totally CHOKE your potential:
- No need for you to push yourself outside the COMFORT ZONE to discover unknown territory
- No need for you to gain EXPERIENCE and personal development
- No need for you to realize that you actually can do BETTER than you THOUGHT
- No need for you to increase your CONFIDENCE by mastering new activities
- No need for you to discover that you are GOOD ENOUGH and you can play with the big boys and girls
A short recap, the downside of using the SMART goals approach is that it`s limiting your achievement, experience, personal development and TRUE POTENTIAL.
DUMB goals stands for:
- Dreaming
- Uplifting
- Massive cojones
- Barely attainable
Note: I`ve created a DUMB goals template that has helped me reach my goals several times.
Click the button below to get it for free (normally I just give them to my coaching clients).
Click Here to Get Your FREE DUMB Goals Template
Let me elaborate…
Dreaming
If you had a magic wand and you could wave it and wish to achieve whatever you put your mind to, what would you wish for?
The answer to that question is a dreaming goal.
Most people are so afraid of failing, that they will not set a goal that is hovering to high, because they might not reach it.
It`s like a plant, if the plant doesn`t stretch towards the sun, it will not grow.
Uplifting
The goal should give you a positive feeling.
When you think about already having achieved it, it should give you a good tingling feeling in your stomach.
You will be glad when you reach your goal, and it will benefit yourself or / and others on a big scale.
Massive cojones
Cojones is the Spanish word for balls.
Sometime it is important to have the guts and courage to do whatever it takes to reach your goal, no matter what the risk of failing is, as long as it is worth it.
No great invention or legendary deed has ever been performed by not having the guts.
Brian Tracy says that the only difference between the hero and the coward is that the hero sticks in there five minutes longer.
Barely attainable
The goal should be attainable in a long shot.
Why?
Because it`s a dreaming, uplifting goal which requires mega balls to achieve.
The best thing is that it forces you to stretch higher than your normally would and thereby grow your potential.
Rome wasn`t built by using the smart goals approach.
When Colonel Harland Sanders at the age of 65 years went to sell his chicken recipe to restaurant owners, he didn`t do it by using the smart goals approach. He knocked on 1009 doors until he finally got his first YES. The Chain is today called Kentucky Fried Chicken.
[clickToTweet tweet=”No legendary outcome has ever been produced by small and realistic #goalsetting #success” quote=”In other words: no legendary outcome has ever been produced by small and realistic goal setting”]
You might be thinking, “Okay, Tor I get it. You have created the DUMB goals approach. But is it just theory?”
A great question.
I have not only created this approach, I have also put it to the TEST several times with great success.
How DUMB goals skyrocket my success
Long story short: several years ago when I was only setting realistic goals, I only accomplished small achievements…
and to be quite honest it was WEARING ME OUT.
I felt that no matter how many hours I put in and how hard I worked…
I was barely moving towards my big hairy goal.
Then I started started to experiment with the DUMB goals approach.
Did it work? Judge for yourself…
Here are a few of the goals I accomplished using the DUMB goals approach:
- Black belt in WTF Taekwondo in 2.5 years by only training 2 times a week (average time is 3-3.5 years)
- Became a store manager with IT responsibility for the biggest martial arts distributor in the country of age 22, and became the head of logistics for the same company of age 24
- I convinced my company to cover my first car, a BMW 320d, when no one else could
- Decided to become a SAP-consultant, and was headhunted 1.5 years later to work as System Administrator(SAP) for one of the biggest companies the country
- Tripled the income within 5 years
- Mentored others
- Increased my productivity by 200 %
- Built a distribution network of 1500+ people under 2 years
- Met my girlfriend and future wife
- Earned into the six figures
- While working full-time, managed to increase my earnings through a side business by $53.500
- Lost 13 pounds in 29 days without starving
- Went on a voluntourism trip to Guatemala and helped building a bottle school
- Escaped the rat race in order to follow my dream and start my own company
- Has spoken on stage in front of 3000 people in Nice
- Got 2000 targeted Twitter followers in 38 days (free traffic)
- Wrote a post that generated 20 231 page views in 6 days
- Managed to cancel a renting contract, get a bank loan and buy a new apartment in 3 days
- Won “Most Epic blog post” on Boost Blog Traffic
It wasn`t magic. It was just following a PROVEN template that WORKS (you can download it for FREE at the end of the post.)
If I can do it, then so CAN YOU!
STOP limiting your future and life by only setting realistic goals, aim higher and UNLOCK your TRUE POTENTIAL!
What to do next…
Since I CARE about you and I TRULY want you to SUCCEED, I want to do something AWESOME.
I`m giving you my DUMB Goal template that I normally only give to my coaching clients.
The template has helped me to reach my BIG goals, over and over again. Download your FREE DUMB goal template below and start crushing YOUR BIG GOALS!
Click Here to Get Your FREE DUMB Goals Template
Have you ever experienced setting goals that were too easy to reach?
What`s your experience with reaching your BIG hairy goals?
I help online entrepreneurs NETWORK with influencers and position their BRAND so they can attract the right CLIENTS fast. Award-winning blogger.
Great article Tor 🙂 I love how you related setting smart goals as dumb because you are getting out of your comfort zone. My big hairy is goal is help enough people with my home business, so I can leave my corporate job.
Thanks for stopping by to comment, Steven.
I really appreciate it 🙂
The thing with goal setting is that the desired outcome isn`t necessarily to reach the goal you have set – but to actually have forced you out of your comfort zone and to actually hit a BETTER result than you would have, if you didn`t set the goal.
If you set a goal to hit 50 amount of X, you make a plan and work hard and strategically, you would perhaps reach 45 amount of X.
45/50 isn`t that bad.
However, if you didn`t set the goal to reach 50 amount of X, you would perhaps only have reached 30 amount of X.
Goals are there to make us stretch…
To make us go out of our comfort zone.
And to help us reach our true potential 🙂
Helping enough people with your business, so you can leave your corporate job, is definitely a big hair goal 🙂
I`m proud of you, Steven.
I`ve been in the same situation, and I was able to leave my corporate job in August last year 😉
Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you on your journey 🙂
Tor
I love your DUMB goals. For the females of the world. I would say M for Massive Determination or Mindset. I learned that it isn’t about any “If succeeding”, but the “when you’ll succeed” mindset and that requires determination. We ladies don’t have any cojones and that is OK. Determination is what puts that courage into us that let’s us pick ourselves up when we fall, dust ourselves off, and go again. I started my online biz 2 years ago after loosing my job. I am definitely following your DUMB goals. I have developed so many products I am so passionate about. Now it is about marketing them, so I can get on with the other ones I have cooking in my head.
Thanks for you great comment, Susan.
Yes, the word massive cojones can really be translated to massive determination or massive guts.
It`s all about the courage to undertake a big expedition in unexplored terrain.
Henry Ford said: “‘Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
Every great accomplishments starts with one person believing that he can.
No great deeds have ever been accomplished by having a limiting mindset.
As you are saying, Susan, the difference between successful person and a person who isn`t, is that the successful person have failed ten times more, but he / she has gotten back on his / her feet EVERY SINGLE time.
Thanks for commenting.
Good luck with the marketing of your products 🙂
Have a great day.
Best,
Tor
Epic post, Tor! I love all the things you have been able to accomplish using your D.U.M.B. system.
Thanks for the great info.
Sue
Thanks a lot for your kind words, Sue.
I`m so glad that you found this post useful 🙂
Have an awesome day.
Best,
Tor
This is a very inspiring post on goal setting Tor,
Many people follows goal setting in different ways and i think the main difference between the people that always achieve their goals and those that fails is mainly how you follows it.
This is my first time of hearing of the Dumb goal approach and it sounds so interesting :). Like you said, every great leader today is a dreamer, its only through dreams that you’ll discover where you need to be, its now your duty to decide how to get there.
Once you’ve known your goals, its time to pictulise it in in your mind and see your self already achieving it and like you said, this thoughts alone should be able to make you happy.
Thanks for sharing Tor and do have a lovely weekend :).
Thanks a lot for your great comment, Theodore.
The important thing with following a goal setting system, is that you follow a system that works!
But following a system is the easy part…
the hard part is to actually put in the hard work and hustle every single day, doing all the uncomfortable tasks that will bring you closer to your end goal…
WHETHER you feel like or not 😉
Have an awesome weekend!
Tor
Hi Tor,
WOW!!!
This sounds epic!
Looks like the DUMB goal approach is what I needed to create the transformation I am looking for in my life.
Thanks for this free download!
Have a happy weekend!
Luna
Thanks a lot for stopping by to comment, Luna.
I really like your name, same as my newborn daughter 😉
I`m glad that you found this post useful.
Feel free to shoot me an email and keep me updated on your journey.
What is the big transformation you want to achieve in your life? 🙂
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Tor
HA! When I read the last post I thought: yeah, I’ve heard of this strategy before, and it’s efficient, but where’s the fun, where’s the boldness in it?
You perfectly balanced it out with this one!
Love the template, the signature puts a perfect ring and personal tone to it. Has that commitment-feeling to it!
Good stuff Tor, thanks!
Love that you used this to find love and to score that BMW (3 series is my fave ;)).
What’s the latest goal that you use this approach on?
Hi Niklas,
thanks for your kind words and for downloading the template 🙂
Finding the love and score a BMW makes using the system definitely worth it, right? 😉
The last goal I used this approach on was when I recently managed to cancel an existing renting contract, get a bank loan and buy a new apartment in 3 days.
Have a great day.
Tor
Anyone that leaves a six-figure income to dive head first into building an online business definitely has “Massive cojones” Tor.
lol Great post, bro.
LOL. Thanks a lot for your great comment, Brent.
Some people may say that it`s CRAZY, I would say that it`s a life changing event that indeed requires “massive cojones”, planning and a lot of hard and strategic work.
To be quite honest it wasn`t really a choice…
when you have been working your b*tt off for decades to build other people`s dreams, you will at one point realize that you might as well do the same in order to build YOUR own dream.
Doing anything else…
would for my part me be totally CRAZY bananas.
Have a great weekend!
Best,
Tor
Oh, I agree with you there my friend…
If anyone is going to push me to produce more next year, it’s going to be me – not the guy whose Audi I just worked to pay for. 😉
Thanks a lot for stopping by to comment, Brent.
You are SO TRUE.
The only person responsible for your own life is YOU.
LOL. Yeah, I know how you feel. It`s really demotivating to be working like crazy, just so the owners can buy themselves a new car.
2016 will be the year of young and promising Mr.Jones.
And who can make that happen?
Yup, Mr.Jones 😉
Have a great day!
Best,
Tor
Nice one Tor!
“If you answered that your goals are realistic, and it will not push you out of your comfort zone and reach you truly amazing potential, you are correct.”
As Les Brown said; Most people fail in life not because they aim high and miss, but because they aim low and hit.
I love your Dumb goal word play, excellent article.
Keep up the good work Tor!
Heitem Ak
Hi Heitem.
Thanks a lot for stopping by to comment.
I really appreciate it.
If you want to accomplish goals you haven`t achieved before, you have to do activities you haven`t done before.
Time to get out of your comfort zone! 🙂
Have a great weekend.
Best,
Tor
Wow, you were able to accomplish quite a bit using your DUMB goal system Tor!
Excited to see how this system will help me.
How do you apply this system specifically to blogging?
Best,
~Jason
Thanks a lot for stopping by, Jason.
I really appreciate your kind words.
Regarding blogging, I would first use download and use the DUMB goal sheet.
When you have stated your big hairy goal, THEN you need to break that big hairy goal into smaller activities.
Example:
Big hairy goal: get 500 subscribers in 30 days.
Then break that big goal down into the specific activities you need to do.
Activity A: Social Media
Activity B: Guest Blogging
Activity C: Blogger outreach
Activity D: Facebook Ads
Activity E: Pinterest Ads
You each of the activities above will be SMART goals.
Formula: 1 DUMB goals breaks into X amount of SMART goals.
I will write a more thorough blog post about this topic.
I hope that helped.
Jason, if you have any further questions, feel free to shoot me an email 🙂
Have an awesome weekend!
Best,
Tor
Hi Tor,
Wow! Your list of accomplishments using the DUMB technique is inspiring. A big thumbs up. I do agree that the SMART technique can be very limiting. Doing what is safe will never get you noticed.
Recently I have been challenging myself to step out of my comfort zone and try projects that seem impossible. I must confess that doing this is not easy – there are a lot of trying moments and it hardly helps that nobody else can understand what you are doing – but the feeling you get when you do achieve your goal is immeasurable. Almost explosive.
Great post. Will be sharing this one.
Hi Chioma,
thanks a lot for your kind words and for stopping by to comment.
I really appreciate it 🙂
It`s great to hear that you are stepping outside your comfort zone. Nope, it´s not easy at all.
To be quite honest, it`s hard…
nah, who are we kidding?
It`s REALLY HARD.
However, nothing worth achieving comes easy.
The reward often reflects the hard work and sweat.
It`s important that you surround yourself with positive like-minded people that can support your goals.
Imagine yourself training track and fields, aiming to become the national champion in 200 meter sprint.
That would be EVEN HARDER if all your loved ones stood on the sideline, not cheering, but rolling their eyes and trying to kick your in the legs…
That is often how our friends and family acts when you reveal your BIG HAIRY goals…
and they LOVE you, and think they are doing you a favour when giving you the “get back to reality speech”.
The dream killers come in many forms, and often from those who are closest to us.
So don`t listen to people telling you that you can`t do it.
Listen to yourself! You CAN do it 😉
Have a great day.
Best,
Tor
Hey.,Wow, you were able to accomplish quite a bit using your DUMB goal system Tor!HA! When I read the last post I thought: yeah, I’ve heard of this strategy before, and it’s efficient, but where’s the fun, where’s the boldness in it?Once you’ve known your goals, its time to pictulise it in in your mind and see your self already achieving it and like you said, this thoughts alone should be able to make you happy.Thanks for the great info. 🙂 🙂
Thanks a lot for stopping by to comment Sneha, and for you kind words 🙂
If you don`t push yourself outside your comfort zone and constantly working to become the best that you can be, you are actually procrastinating…
and you are letting mediocracy wearing you down.
Nothing legendary worth achieving has been accomplished without having to push your own boundaries.
Have a great day.
Best,
Tor
This is nice idea of dumb goals. This can also be useful for many people in their life. You have also nicely created every point for explaining about dumb goal. Keep it up.
Hi Swapnil,
thanks a lot for stepping by to comment.
I really appreciate your kind words.
You might want to check out my latest post http://www.timemanagementchef.com/big-hairy-audacious-goal/
Where I talk about how to take a big hairy goal and break it down into smaller realistic goals.
Have a great day!
Best,
Tor
Hi Tor,
Wow! Your list of accomplishments using the DUMB technique is inspiring. A big thumbs up. I do agree that the SMART technique can be very limiting. Doing what is safe will never get you noticed.
Hi Rahul,
thanks for stopping by to comment.
Yes, limiting your own potential is the best way to procrastinate.
Believe in yourself and aim higher 🙂
Best,
Tpr
Hey Tor,
What an uplifting and exciting post. I am not using the SMART strategy. At the moment I am doing six months blocks. Because my I am brand new to everything I am doing. I have a three year turn around and intend to meet it without any fear, but the realisation that hard work is in the house. This constantly keeps me on the look out for how to work smarter not harder.
So my next six month block starts in approximately five weeks and I can’t wait, it is new territory, scary, outside of my comfort zone and mind blowing. I can’t believe I am at my next stage.
What I really enjoyed was your achievement list. Congratulations but very inspiring. Thank you.
Rachel.
Hi Rachel,
thanks a lot for stopping by to comment and sharing your situation.
I REALLY appreciate it.
Even though it`s smart to have 6 months blocks, you should also divide those 6 months blocks down into smaller 1 month blocks, and then break it down into weeks.
I will help you to stay on track and be able to see your where CURRENTLY ARE vs. where you SHOULD BE (according to the plan).
Example:
Big goal: Get 1200 new subscribers in 6 months.
This can be broken down to:
Month 1: 200 subscribers
Month 2: 200 subscribers
Month 3: 200 subscribers
Month 4: 200 subscribers
Month 5: 200 subscribers
Month 6: 200 subscribers
Then you can take each month and break it down in weeks:
Let`s say that 1 month translates to 4 weeks.
That means that you need 50 subscribers each week in order to get 1200 new subscribers in 6 months.
That is measurable, but more importantly it will let you be able to FOCUS and KEEP TRACK on your progress.
If you don`t hit your 50 subscribers each week, you have to review your current activities and adjust your strategy.
Have an awesome day!
Best,
Tor
Boy! Tor you nailed it. First off, your blog outreach course is quite a huge success! i’ve used two of your lessons and I’m just glad to say (though it’s not much), that in 5months of blogging, i’ve got over 500 subs, and have guest posted in three sites. Just got a call to co-author a site too. Thanks.
Secondly, this post is just awesome. I really enjoyed the spice you’ve added to this post on goal system. Wow. You’re the best!
just curious though, but how many hours do you spend on an average post?
Much love, George
This is an extremely moving post on objective setting Tor,
Numerous individuals takes after objective setting in various ways and i think the principle distinction between the general population that dependably accomplish their objectives and those that falls flat is basically how you tails it.
Thanks for commenting 🙂
It´s all about thinking big in order to push yourself out of your comfort zone, so you can achieve a better results than you normally would have.
Have a great day!
Tor
HY!
very nice article……thanks for sharing you DUMB goal experience with us……these ideas/tricks are awesome…and working…..liked your style..keep it up.