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A Simple Way to Tell if Your Goals Are Unrealistic

Test it.

Corey Fradin
3 min readFeb 5, 2021
A felt board with letters on it.
Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

It’s quite easy to tell if a goal you set for yourself is unrealistic. The bigger problem, however, lies at the root of goal setting itself. Most goals look something like this:

  • Lose 20 pounds by November
  • Make $1,000 from freelancing within 90 days

It’s the common structure that people generally follow when it comes to goal setting; choose an end result out of the air, throw a date on it, and see what happens. And it’s that format that causes most people to miss their goals.

There’s a better way to do things.

How to Tell if Your Goals Are Unrealistic

If you’re concerned that one of your goals is unrealistic, all you have to do is test it out. For instance, let’s say your goal is to run five miles a day, five days a week.

You’re concerned though that five miles a day is too much to start with.

What should you do?

Easy. Try doing it for a few days. If it’s too challenging, adjust your goal and run fewer miles. If it’s not challenging enough, adjust your goal and run more miles. And if five miles feels just right, don’t change a thing.

Who Said You Can’t Change…

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