Setting Lofty Goals | 16 Minutes to Change Your Mindset

Goals.

Set your goals.

Setting goals.

Set goals.

Set little goals.

Goal setting.

Set some goals.

Set goals.

Goal.

Hello, Believe Nation.

My name is Evan Carmichael. My one word is believe, and I believe that entrepreneurs will solve all of the world's major problems. So to help you on your journey today, we're gonna learn how you can set goals. And also guys, if you're watching, if you hear something that really resonates with you, please leave it down in the comments below, put quotes around it, you might win a prize. But also when you write it down, it's much more likely to stick with yourself as well.

Enjoy.

I got an older white male, he's probably in his 60s maybe, right? And my man says to me, you know, like, I heard what you said, E.T., but how do you sustain it? I'm like, okay, say it. I'm like, all right, say it again because I want to make sure I'm hearing what you're saying. He's like, you talk about going going 120. You talk about going hard. You talk about having what you want, being what you want, do what you want. Okay, I get it, but how do you sustain it? I'm thinking, is that a real question? I said, listen to me very closely. How did I start this whole presentation off? He said, write down the people's name that you love. I said, duh. If you waking up every day and thinking about your wife, duh, how do you not sustain this? If you wake up every day and you looking at your son, how do you not sustain it? You think I'm gonna put my kid's life in the hands of some other man? You think that's my role as a father? You think My role is to allow my kids to come here and pay all this money to go to school and do everything they did, and now they gotta go beg somebody else for a job. That's not my role or responsibility.

How—

sustain it? What do you mean? How do you not sustain it? I ask you, why are you not pumped up? Why you have days off? I'm asking you why you get 70%. You don't love nobody? Is there not somebody that you don't love more than yourself? Is there not somebody you waking up for? Is there not somebody you grinding for? Somebody told me that. They get distracted easy. Let me tell you something, the reason why you're getting distracted easy, 'cause you don't got 8 or 9 things you wake up to every single day and say, I gotta go get that. Many of you are getting distracted because you don't have something that's stronger than the distraction. You need something stronger than the distraction. You're getting distracted with parties, you're getting distracted with smoking, you're getting distracted with drinking, you're getting distracted with sleeping, you're getting distracted with video games. Why? Because the video game is stronger than your goal. I tell my homies all the time, bro, if it ain't got nothing to do with— y'all be playing, I'm like, if it ain't about the money, You just singing it. I'm for real. Don't be blowing me up.

It's easy to pull things back. It's very hard to ramp things up. And I'd rather start with something that's too big and pull it back into reality than start with something that's so easy that you can't really get it up. For example, you know, don't set your goals realistically. Set them entirely unrealistically. I mean, shoot for 80 and be disappointed when you hit 70. As opposed to shooting for 20 and being ecstatic when you hit 21.

We beat our goal!

Yeah, but it was a very low goal. You know, I think to be frustrated and achieving something rather than ecstatic and achieving less is a better way to live. Not to mention you achieve more. So I'm a great believer in the greater good. Like those things are like, are so big, they're ridiculous. I mean, like, my goal is a 100-year goal. It's called world peace. Pfft.

You know?

So daunting. But that's the idea. If I fail, and I certainly won't achieve it in my lifetime, I'd like to think that what I'll contribute towards that ridiculous idealistic nonsense goal will be more than if I say, if I can just be happy by myself. In my little house, you know?

Right.

I mean, that's nice and all, but I like the idea of contributing to your neighbor as well.

I don't want to be called an actor. I don't want to be called a star. I don't want to have a label. I want to have a legacy. I want to be known as someone who has goals and achieves them, and whatever they might be, wherever they might be. I want to be limitless. I want to break stereotypes. I want to go where no man or woman has gone before. And it might be a scary path, and it might be a path that no one's taken, but at least it'll be just mine. I had the worst self-esteem when I was a kid. I was made fun of because of the way I talked, because of where I came from. I was made fun of on every level. And the only way you can change that is setting goals for yourself and saying, "I will be the best version of me." I was 18 and I started doing movies, I gave myself a year and a half. And I said, if I don't— if I sense that I'm not good at what I'm doing and I don't see something opening up for me, I'm gonna go back to college. I always had a plan B. I still always have a plan B. And that's what I always tell young people, that, you know, life doesn't end. It just keeps moving. You have to put your blinkers on and find what you do best and just keep moving.

I want you to start seeing something bigger. I know you're all successful. I'm talking about something really big for your life. And in order to do that, you have to answer this question: What do you really want? Now, I'm not talking about something small. I'm not talking about a little haiku. I'm not talking about renovating your kitchen. I'm not talking about signing on 10 new customers this month. I'm talking about what you really want. You know, 3 years ago, I was a lawyer and a business coach. Working with private clients and big corporations all over the country. And I came to a seminar just like this one, a big leadership seminar, and I went there with my husband. We're both business owners, and I went because I wanted to be more successful, and I went because I wanted to make even more money than I already did. And I was sitting exactly where you are. In fact, I was sitting about 15 rows back, right where that woman with her hand on her head like, yeah, you? Yeah, she's like, "Hi!"— was sitting, and I was taking notes, and I'm like, "Okay, I'm here to make more money." And then all of a sudden, she walked on stage. That is Martha Beck. She writes a column for Oprah Winfrey. She travels around the country speaking. She's a best-selling author. And when she walked on stage, I literally stopped listening. Please keep listening to me right now. And it hit me. I said, "I want to be doing that. I'm ready for a bigger state." Like, that's it. And what's so interesting about when you answer that question is that you don't answer it up here. You answer it here. That's how you see something bigger for yourself. You know, you guys are really cute because everybody's like, "I don't see I don't see anything for myself right now. Now I'm just confused. I thought I knew what I wanted, you know, and now, Mel, I'm not really sure. And right now the economy is so bad. I mean, it's so bad that even if you're successful— I know sometimes I feel embarrassed talking about my success around some of my friends because I know that they're really struggling. And I get calls every day into the radio show people saying, "Oh, I've got this great idea, but I just don't know if it's the right time." And you know what I say to them? I say, "Yeah, you know, you're right. The recession, it's huge, you should wait. Those dreams, yeah, put them on hold. That's right. You should stay in that job you can't stand just a little bit longer. You've got college bills to pay. I mean, you know, what you're doing, it's fine. You're busy, right? That guy you're dating, he's good enough for you." But for the people in this room, baloney. You know— that's right. You know exactly what you want, and the only thing that you need to do is to admit it. Now, this may sound weird because I know most of you came in here because you're like, "I know what I want. I'm here at Success to try to figure it out." I'm talking about something bigger, much bigger. I'll admit to you what it is that I'm up to, and the truth is, it's embarrassing. Because when you lock on to something way bigger than where you're at, it is downright embarrassing to tell people, because you're not there yet. But I mean, at this rate, I've already admitted to you that I stalked Martha Beck, and that I brought a haiku to the best, you know, lit agent in the country, so I got nothing I have nothing to lose at this point. So this is what I want. Well, not him. I'm married. I want what he's got. I want 600 radio stations. I want 2 million listeners. And I could certainly deal with the $400 million salary. In fact, if I got it, I'd renovate everybody's kitchen. The thing is, though, that's so interesting about this is that I didn't pick him. I mean, I'm not looking to become a cigar-smoking conservative political guy that like stirs the pot and makes everybody all mad. I'm the liberal lifestyle gal that's trying to help people out. But what I want to do is I want to use radio to entertain people and help them achieve their dreams. And when I really think about it, he's the one that's in the front. I want to not only reach what he's doing, I want to surpass him. I mean, do you think I like it when my friends come over to my office in Boston at my house and they're like, "What is that guy doing on your board?" No, it's embarrassing. When you admit the big thing that you're up to, to. It's embarrassing. I have 40 stations. He's got 600. There's a big gap. So admitting where you want to get to is embarrassing, but you got to do it.

You see, the beautiful part about goals and understanding it is goals are not to get. Goals is not— you don't set goals for acquisition. You set goals to grow. You set goals to reach inside and stretch and go where you've never been. You set goals to take you to a place you've never gone before, and you grow as a human being. And you know something? You never go back.

You know, now I don't watch TV too much, and, you know, it's hard because most of the time I watch a lot of ESPN, but not anymore. And, you know, just honestly, you know, try to stay focused and stay focused and set little goals for myself every day. Get a little bit better, learn one new thing, improve I want to improve one way every day when I step out here. And when you set all those little goals and you keep hitting them, then you're constantly going to keep getting better and, you know, not worry about everything else. Just let that take care of itself and worry about what I can control.

First, let me say that I think the goals pretty much set the tone for everything else. You know, I guess when you think about goal setting and when you really allow your goals to start becoming the lead to manage your steps, then your life path starts to become guided. And not just haphazard and by chance. Goals become the predetermined address that we serve— would serve as a destination, an end result. And now with at least that, you're able to make decisions and map out a course, step by step, if you will, that will help get you there. And the really cool thing about goal setting is that even if you do not have all the information beyond the address, like what streets, when and where to turn, With having the address, you can always type in GPS coordinates and pretty much take advantage of other sensibilities that can help point you in the right direction. So a lot of times you don't really need to have all of the guesswork predetermined and already figured out once you have the address. You're that much closer to being able to get where you're trying to go. As an athlete on stage, that's kind of what I'm using to help get me where I feel I need to be to perform at maximum efficiency. So yeah, goal-setting is very, very very important, and it's been very, very critical in helping me get from the beginning of my career to where I am presently.

You had a plan, though. The remarkable thing to me was at 22, 23 years old, that your plan was completely laid out. I mean, as a— in reading your book, you know, you knew, I was going to take this amount of money. Your plan was to make 3 El Mariachi movies. Yeah, well, the thing is, if you want to get somewhere, you really got to set some goals for yourself. They won't ever happen the way you plan, but at least you'll know that you'll set move forward on a positive, you know, in a positive direction that may take you someplace better by accident, right?

You just have to, you know, it's, it's not easy to see beyond where you are, but you have to try to see beyond where you are, set goals beyond where you are, think about ways that you can break out and make a difference. And that's what I did. I had some great people around me, my family, teachers, people that believed in me. And encouraged me, sent me off to an Ivy League school, and I figured it out after that.

But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas? We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills. Because that challenge is one that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win. And the others too.

Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed. I'd love to know what did you take from this video that you're going to immediately apply somehow to your life or to your business. Leave it down in the comments below. I'm really excited to see what you have to say. I also want to give a quick shout out to Luis Lopez from The Better Men Project. Luis, thank you so much for picking up a copy of my book, Your One Word. I really appreciate the support and I'm glad you enjoyed the reading.

If you could describe yourself with one word, What would it be?

So thank you guys again for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.