There’s no thrill in doing the easy stuff.

No one wakes up thinking, “Yes! I can finally wash the dishes today.” It’s boring, easy, and something we’re used to doing. But we do wake up thinking, “Yes! I’m finally going to hike in the Swiss Alps today!” After all, going to the Alps is fun, new, and a bit scary because climbing snow-clad mountains isn’t the easiest thing out there. A goal like the Alps is much more likely to get your blood flowing and your heart racing.

So, the best way to ensure you achieve your goals? Make them scary.

Why Don’t Our Goals Work?

Because goal setting doesn’t make you successful.

The biggest misconception people have is that setting a goal is enough to make you successful. Yes, your vision board, visualization exercises, and goals all play a crucial role in setting you up for success—but they are not enough.

Think of them through the lens of your favorite movie, where the characters feel real, live in a bustling city, face real human problems, and solve them in ways we can relate to. All those factors make it life-like, but not life itself. That’s what vision boards and goals represent: potential realities you can live in—not the reality itself.

Apart from not understanding these distinctions, people make another mistake: setting vague goals. They’re not setting goals, they’re whispering a mere wish hoping a genie would appear and make it come true. Instead of being specific, they are casual. Instead of being focused, they are scattered everywhere. Yet, those are the traits that set the foundation of real success.

This is the problem with setting a goal like, “One day when I have enough money, maybe I’ll open a restaurant.”

The one day, the money and the restaurant never come. All that remains is a wish you made decades ago. And if wishing were all it took, we’d all be living in mansions on the coast.

Goals that sound like a detailed action plan work. Wishes do not. The earlier you understand that, the better.

How can you make that happen? By understanding…

The Goldilocks Zone:

Why? Because this zone is the only reason you’re alive.

As NASA says, this zone is “Just right” for life to exist on a planet. “The distance Earth orbits from the Sun is just right for water to remain a liquid. This distance from the sun is called the habitable zone, or the Goldilocks Zone.”

If Earth was in Mercury’s place, water would be too hot and just boil off as steam. In Pluto’s place, the sun would be so far away that everything would freeze. But we’re exactly 93 million miles away from the sun, which turns out to be the Goldilocks Zone and the only reason we exist today.

Just like the Earth, you have a Goldilocks zone too. A place where you truly come alive and grow, where you’re fulfilled and hungry at the same time, and where happiness and ambition coexist—pushing you to be your very best.

That’s where goals that are a bit scary come in. When something’s too easy, you’re like Mercury, and blowing off the steam becomes the path of least resistance. But when something’s too difficult, you’re like Pluto, frozen in self-doubt and fear.

Be like your home, flow like water, and set goals that challenge you just enough to excite you, overwhelm you just enough to make action urgent, and push you just enough to keep you focused while also reaping the fruits of your labor.

It sounds paradoxical, but that duality has been the essence of life from the very start. Embrace it, and you’ll be a happy, fulfilled, and peaceful person who’s full of ambition, drive, and a go-getter attitude.

The foundation of life will be the foundation of everything that stems from it. Always remember that.

Now, the big question is…

How Do You Find Your Goldilocks Zone?

Simple.

Set specific goals with specific actions that you must do in a specific timeline.

Create the perfect conditions for action to sprout in and you’ll be on your feet before you know it.

Let’s circle back to the goal we discussed at the start, “One day when I have enough money, maybe I’ll open a restaurant.”

It’s stale, lifeless, and frozen like Pluto. It doesn’t push you to take any action. But now, look at this goal, “I’ll open a hot dog stall downtown in the next 30 days and sell hotdogs for four hours each evening.”

This goal pushes you to do something, in a certain timeframe, and in a specific way. This sounds more like an action plan than a plain wish and that’s exactly what we want.

A hot dog stall is the Goldilocks Zone for an aspiring chef and restaurant owner because of two factors:

• It’s not as easy as just cooking in your home. It forces you to interact with the world and deal with real customers.
• It’s not as difficult and time/money-consuming as a full-fledged restaurant. If you have a fairly well-paying job, you can start the stall without having to seek funding or debt from a bank. 

You can also experiment and change the same stall to sell some other kind of food. The opportunities are endless; the commitment is minimal—the perfect conditions for when you want to figure things out.

When you think of goals from this perspective, you stop seeking comfortable, easy, and predictable goals to start doing things that actually excite and fire you up. And isn’t that much better than living a safe but unfulfilled life?

Easy goals might give you a sense of accomplishment for some time, but you’ll plateau before you know it. The only way out is to step out of your bubble of comfort and into your Goldilocks zone.

When you get there, you’ll be in the league of achievers who say to you, “Welcome to the club!”

And now, only one question remains, “Are you ready to join in?”