When an Olympian says, “Set realistic goals,” I scratch my head.  It strikes me that their goals were initially in the “impossible” category, certainly unrealistic, for almost everybody.  So, an Olympian advising on “realistic” goals when they’re at that near-impossible level of achievement seems contradictory.  It’s like when my professor told my high-performing friend to take it easy with education, advice that the professor obviously didn’t internalize herself.  As a result, my friend, who had the intelligence to become a professor, took the professor’s advice to take it easy, scoring a 3.3 in her undergraduate degree while pursuing an average life far below her potential.  When I heard she took the laid-back approach to her education, it horrified me.  Someone with her top student and professorial potential gunning for average is a nightmare conclusion.  And all of us at AU have superstar potential.  We all, deep down, know what we can become: everything we’ve ever dreamed of.  We could have the most disabling conditions or circumstances and rise to Mount Everest’s peak, victorious in every pursuit.

I went job shopping today, which excites me because many job opportunities look fun.  Furthermore, LinkedIn indicates that I’d be highly qualified for careers paying a quarter million a year, which would leapfrog me to that financial goal sooner than anticipated if selected.  I advise: If we want something spectacular, “unrealistic,” knock on giant doors, even if we feel like minions.  That’s because the more magnificent the doors we knock on, the more likely one of those enormous doors will open.  Similarly, if we knock on small doors, small doors will likely open.  So, go for the gold, Champion! And it is a probability game: for every one hundred high-paying jobs we apply for, we may be invited to one potentially life-altering interview.  So, let’s play with probabilities when it comes to aiming high.  Somebody is making a world-record jump.  Why not us?

However, the job that I’m most excited about may not pay six figures, but it’s Korean-operated, and I love the hard work ethic familiar to many Koreans.  It will also get me hands-on in virtual reality, metaverses, cryptocurrencies, and other exciting tasks.  If we have a passion, consider applying for careers that will allow us to go nuts learning stuff that thrills us.

Despite all this great fun searching for jobs, I still need to create a vision of what my documentary’s “success” will look like.  The documentary may end up in some small theatres for a week and then on Amazon Prime or Vimeo on Demand, but those outcomes don’t move the “thrill” needle.  So, the goal is for us to dream bigger and bigger until the fantasy overwhelms us with excitement.  That sensory-stimulating vision of success also serves as a roadmap, as every dark forest leads to a sunlit open highway when we use a roadmap.  So, intensely visualize the outcome of our goal until it makes our hearts light up with passion.  I never thought those vision boards, where we cut out magazine pictures and glue them on paper, were effective.  However, those vision boards may be highly productive if we choose mind-blowing, super-exciting images that drive us to delirious rapture.

So, commit 1000% to “impossible” goals to fire up the passion.  And don’t listen to those gold medalist Olympians who say, “Set realistic goals.” Pay attention instead to what those Olympians do, which is achieve the impossible.  And suppose we knock on a door the size of Mount Everest, and it lets us in.  When that occurs, we’ve got the momentum to skyrocket to even more fantastic heights, and given that the universe is infinite, so are the heights we can achieve, especially of a spiritual nature.  After all, fantasies are thrilling when we commit to achieving lofty, impossible goals.  We don’t want our “book of life” to be a sleeper—so supercharge it, Champion! No matter how many miles we slide back into the mud, we’ve got this!