Why don’t we focus our sights on the biggest boldest goals we can imagine? Why instead do we settle for smaller incremental goals? I think it’s because of a very real part of human nature.
Who hasn’t had the experience of feeling overwhelmed and fearful which then allows self-doubt to creep in when we stare down the barrel of a huge goal.
What happens next?
Typically, we scale back our ambition because of a whole host of very real and compelling reasons.
It’s incredibly understandable why we settle for small rather than big.
What if
What if I told you that actually it’s only a very small series of shifts you need to make in the way you think, act and specifically the conversations that you have with those around you.
I’m Caspar Craven and my obsession is with finding the small human shifts that anyone can make in order to achieve your big bold goals, either as an individual or as a team.
My journey started when I was on the cusp of getting divorced. At the same time, my business was on the point of failing. The common theme was ‘me’ and the way I was approaching things.
The Catalyst for Change
The prospect of losing everything forced me to stop and try to figure out a different path. It forced me to become a student of what I call the ‘human animal’. Understanding what it is that makes us as humans do things.
That started a journey which initially was about sailing round the world with my wife and our three children under the age of 10. There were many good reasons why we should have been overwhelmed and fearful. We didn’t have the money, my wife got seasick, couldn’t sail, and we didn’t have a boat.
That was just page one of the list of reasons we should have been overwhelmed and filled with self-doubt. Every reason in the world why we should have settled for a two-week sailing holiday in the Greek islands. And yet, we didn’t.
We made some mindset shifts. We had some very human conversations.
Fast forward and with our two-year round-the-world voyage completed, I started to wonder if anyone could make these shifts.
I became obsessed with uncovering the small human shifts that anyone can make. It’s a journey which over the last seven years has taken me round the world to study, interview and research some of the most impressive leaders on the planet.
Pattern Spotting
Success leaves clues and I see time and again the same human shifts. Things that seem obvious to those who use them and oblivious to those who don’t.
Most people expect these shifts to be huge. They aren’t huge. They are small. And they are very accessible.
My mission is to share these ideas so that anyone can navigate their way to achieving what’s important to them. Work team, home team - same thing. The key element is all about how we communicate and work together with other individuals to solve hard problems.
Let me give you one big idea that you can explore today with your team…
Think Bigger
Set aside time to imagine the future. For work, for home. It could be on your own or with others.
Try to see the story in five years’ time that you’d be proud to have worked towards. Fill that story out in as much detail as you can.
As you’re doing this, your mind will almost certainly start trying to fill in the blanks. Specifically, what I call the ‘how to’ questions. What normally happens is because we can’t adequately answer all those ‘how to’ questions in our minds, we quickly become overwhelmed and give up.
Your brain tries to answer all the hard questions on how to achieve a big goal in just one sitting. Very obviously this won’t work so it’s understandable how most big ideas never see the light of day because we talk ourselves out of them.
What if
What if you made this activity into two very distinct steps.
Step 1 – The Dreaming
Imagine the future. Become emotionally connected with it. See it as clearly as you can. Get excited about making it happen. Talk about it. Explore it. Live it.
Here’s the crucial hack:
Each time a 'how to’ question pops up (which it will) write it on a sheet of paper and put it to one side. You’re hearing it, but not trying to answer it today. That is Step 2.
Once you’ve got excited and as clear as you can about the future, write it down and leave those ideas somewhere visible.
Right now, you’re planting seeds in your minds. Individually and collectively.
Step 2 – The Planning
Dreaming without a plan is guaranteed to fail.
What I’ve noticed is the people who are good at dreaming are seldom the same people as those who are good at planning.
We have a standing joke in my family. If it was down to my wife it would never get started, if it was down to me it would never get finished.
One’s a dreamer. One’s a planner.
How I see great teams working together to solve the hard problems on the way to achieving big bold goals needs clear separation between these two spaces.
The Dreamer needs to lead Step 1.
And then once that idea has taken hold, the planner needs to start to grapple the challenges to the ground. This is the work. Step by step. Process driven. Organised. Consistent. That’s how hard problems get solved.
Your Action
Reflect for a moment.
Where have your 'big bold goals' been derailed in the past?
What was missing?
Are you more dreamer or planner?
Did you try and have both conversations in your head at the same time?
What’s an idea you’d like to work on?
Find someone who’s different to you (dreamer vs planner) and follow the two-step process above.
Decode the human animal (you) and you have the path to achieving your 'big bold goals'.
Caspar Craven is a leading authority and motivational speaker on the mindset needed to achieve big bold goals by finding the small human shifts that anyone can make.
For more information about Caspar Craven, view his full profile here, or to enquire about booking him for your event, you can enquire online, email us or pick up the phone and speak to one of our booking agents.
