"Aim For The Stars, If You Fail, You'll Land On The Moon."

[ A THREAD ]

This quote has been attributed to a number of personalities, including Norman Vincent Peale and Neil Armstrong.

Not that I care who said it first. I care about it being total horseshit.

Let me explain:

The you-can-do-it! gurus have always said things like this. "If you want to get to the top of the mountain, aim for the sky".

I think they played too much Mario 64.

The problem with that statement is that even if you aim high, you are taking for granted you'll come up short.

So you haven't even started and you are ALREADY wiring your brain that:

Coming up short will be a SUCCESS!

What kind of nonsense is that?

You're basically telling your brain that it will be not only OK to come up short... you'll even be a winner!

HORSESHIT.

The little detail that they forget to mention is that aiming for the stars, for the top of the mountain or for the moon are VASTLY different endeavours.

And yes, I'm speaking metaphorically.

Say that you want to make $12.000 a month

"Hey, I'll aim for $30.000 a month!"

Wrong.

In fact, it's common sense that you should do the opposite.

If you want to aim for $12k, you have to prove yourself in lesser grounds.

Say, 6k.

That will help you grow your CONFIDENCE.

Confidence in your abilities to reach your goals. THAT is critical for mental frameworks.

Now, OF COURSE this is going to happen:

Let's say you want to climb the Mont Avic, at 3007m.

You train. Buy all the stuff needed. Plan the whole thing.

But as you get to the Grand Paradiso Alps where it's located, you hear about the Punta Tersiva, at 3513m

You think:

"I'm already here, and the Punta Tersiva is just 500m higher... I'll go for that one instead".

WRONG.

I'm sure the Punta Tersiva would be no problem if your had prepared for Mont Avic.

But to climb the Punta Tersiva you had to QUIT climbing the Mont Avic.

Your brain knows.

Yes, you reached a higher goal than you had first planned.

But one part of your brain will never forget that you prepared for Mont Avic and QUIT.

And it's pretty unusual to have a 'higher goal' in the vicinity.

You just wired your brain to 1) quit and 2) improvise.

Not good.

The moral of the thread is double:

1) Define EXACTLY what you want and aim DIRECTLY at it

2) Even if it seems easy halfway through, GO ALL THE WAY TO THE END.

That way you wire your brain for confidence, discipline and laser focus.

Those three will always work.

Of course, your goals must be aligned with your own values.

If halfway through you discover that you're going against them, quit. For example, trying to major in something just to have a degree.

I have a thread on values that might come in handy: https://twitter.com/Knesix/status/1272930894802833408

In the end, we are all capable of GREATNESS.

But the price we have to pay is grind the baby steps.

Go for it. Fail. Iterate. Go all in again.

LET'S DO THIS.

If you think this thread is worth it, consider retweeting the first tweet: https://twitter.com/Knesix/status/1278440096753221632

#namaste