193But I was avoiding a basic truth: I was the problem.
The reason I fought so hard to avoid that truth was that
I never realized it contained good news. I thought it
looked entirely shameful and negative. But once I dis-
covered that accepting responsibility for the problem
also gave me new power for solving it, I became free.
93. Enlarge your objective
Here is another self-motivator that also must be used
as an intellectual tool only.
Take a certain goal of yours and double it. Or triple
it. Or multiply it by 10. And then ask yourself, quite
seriously, what you would have to do to achieve that
new goal.
I used this game recently with a friend who holds a
position in sales. He came to see me because he was
selling $100,000 worth of product each month, the most
on his team, and wanted to somehow get to $140,000.
I asked him to tell me what it would take for him to
sell $200,000 worth of equipment each month.
“$200,000!” he shouted. “That’s impossible. I’m leading
the team already with $100,000, and nobody thought that
could be done.”
“What would you have to do?” I persisted.
“No,” he said. “You don’t understand. I want to hit
$140,000 a month, and even that is so hard I don’t know
how I’ll do it.”
I finally told him the theory behind this game.
If you seriously look at an outrageous goal, such as
“$200,000,” it will open things up for you creatively that
wouldn’t have opened up if you stayed looking at
$140,000. He nodded slowly and reluctantly agreed to
play along for a while.
Enlarge your objective