Some of these people have been amazingly successful:

Chris Dudley: A 16-year veteran NBA center.
Bruce Schilling: Nike's worldwide head of tennis.
Jeff Scrugham:  Owner of one the largest European tour companies. He sold it for cash prior to 9/11.
Others were unique and wonderful people whom I love and enjoy.

This got me thinking about goals. PLEASE KEEP READING. THIS IS NOT YOUR USUAL BLAH, BLAH, BLAH about goals.

You've probably read a lot about goal-setting. Perhaps you've heard of the famous S.M.A.R.T. formula: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-specific. Well, that's OK. But  is it really the best way to set goals?

To set and achieve really great goals, consider being unreasonable.

" The reasonable man adapts himself to the world. The unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
— George Bernard Shaw

Reasonable goals dwell in the zone of what you know and what you know you don't know.

The realization of great goals often comes from venturing into what you don't know you don't know. Reasonable goals make for a good life. Unreasonable goals make for a great life, in my opinion.

Think . . .

Yesterday, Abraham Lincoln, today, Barack O'Bama. Neither has or had a reasonable expectation of the presidency, given their track record. One made it and helped create our nation. We'll see about the other.

A reasonable goal does not go there. Great steps forward, however, do come from setting and achieving goals that force you into what you don't know you don't know. Some call this being unreasonable.

The S.M.A.R.T. formula is very reasonable. It keeps you inside the limiting box of what's just reasonable.

Chris Dudley overcame type 1 diabetes. Playing in the NBA was unreasonable.

Bruce Shilling went from sports agent to flying around the world in Phil Knight's Gulfstream V jet. How could you reasonably ever dream of such a thing?

Jeff Scrugham literally had to bet his entire net worth each year on a direct mail catalog to fill his tours each summer. He mailed his 120-page catalog to tens of thousands of people, a huge cost. Very unreasonable. But it worked.

The subject of fees also comes to mind. Some hope for a bump of 20 percent. I don't accept coaching clients unless they are willing to shoot for 100 percent. Some, like my client, Barbara, shoot for 300 percent and actually make a whole lot more. What would happen if you tripled your income this year? Unreasonable. But possible, if you change your thinking.

Get your head right and the unreasonable is no big deal. Read on for an example of unreasonable becoming a reasonable reality.

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My client and now friend, Dennis, in L.A., will more than double his revenue this year, and I suspect he will at least double it in 2008. Was it scary? Yes. Is it really happening now? YES.

So just how does one get going with a pattern of setting unreasonable goals?

I personally am very fond of my friend Robert Middleton's* I.T.O.C.A. formula (you can check out Robert* here):

1. IMAGINE you're on your deathbed looking back. And you say to your loved ones gathered around, "You know I've had a pretty good life, but I really wish I'd done X." What is X? That's your unreasonable goal.

2. THINK about it all the time. Don't push it out of your mind.

Obsess about it; brainstorm and draw mind maps. Get the idea out of the abstract and into the concrete. Form a mastermind group and kick around ideas. Make it real.

3. Be aware of OPPORTUNITIES and coincidences that present themselves. You couldn't see them before, but now, with increased focus on your goal, you'll start seeing, reading, hearing about things that are connected to your goal. Explore these things. They're there to help you.

4. When the time is right, make a COMMITMENT. On the TV poker shows they talk about going "ALL IN." Don't hold back.
Make a promise. Not one based on knowing how to achieve your goal, but on your desire to make it real. If you have to know how ahead of time, you'll never take the leap.

5. ACTION. Now it's time for the real work, and that consists of putting one foot in front of the other every single day. Keep things alive by creating action plans, researching, asking for assistance, and networking with like-minded people. In other words, create an environment in which the goal can be realized.

Imagine, think, opportunities, commitment, action: I.T.O.C.A.

Now that's a pretty bad acronym compared to S.M.A.R.T., but I promise you, it's a better formula for getting what you truly desire.
I.T.O.C.A., from my point of view, is how most of my friends who have achieved amazing things did what they did; 16 years in the NBA; Gulfstream V Jet flights; and owning a world's largest anything.

I.T.O.C.A., and moving through what they didn't know they didn't know was the key.

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What do you want to do before you leave this earth?  Consider being unreasonable for a change, and begin to wade through what you don't know you don't know until you reach an unreasonable goal or achieve unreasonable success.

Have a great week.

Cheers,
Eric Albertson
Portland, OR
February 13, 2007

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