📪 HH #97: Why realistic goals are ruining your life
- Justin Hubbard
- Aug 9
- 6 min read
TL;DR – Most people set “realistic” long-term goals, which kill urgency and slow progress. Instead, pick one big, life-changing goal, multiply it, and compress the timeline to just one year. This forces extreme clarity, eliminates distractions, and channels all focus into what truly matters. Time isn’t the real need—hyper-focus and urgency are. If your dream matters, stop waiting; act like it’s urgent now.
I was talking to a friend in California the other day. We were catching up on life, business, and where things are headed. The conversation turned to free time, what we’re doing with it, how much we have, and what it actually means to have “time freedom.”
He asked me what I’ve been up to lately. I showed him a picture of me walking my kids on the dock by the bay early in the morning.
Peaceful. Slow. Intentional.
He said, “Man, I’m proud of what you’ve built. I want that too.”
And that’s when I asked him the million-dollar question:
“So, what’s your plan to get there?”
He responded, “Give me 2 to 4 years. I’ll be there.”
Now, on the surface, that sounds good. It sounds responsible. Strategic. "Realistic".
But I looked at him and said, “That kind of thinking is exactly why most people never get what they want.”
Let me explain 👇
The Problem With “Realistic” Goals
Most people set goals based on what they think is “possible.” We shrink our ambitions to fit into a neat box labeled achievable. We create 5- and 10-year plans that feel logical, steady, and safe.
But realistic goals almost never come true.
Why?
Because there’s no urgency behind them. No fire. No intensity.
No reason to change who you are today in order to become who you need to be tomorrow.
The timeline is long, so you take your foot off the gas.
You say, “I’ve got time.”
And that phrase — I’ve got time — silently kills your momentum.
My Approach: Make the Goal Impossible on Purpose
If you’ve got a goal to make $5 million in five years... multiply that sumbitch. Turn it into $25 million.
Then compress the timeline: Ask yourself, “How would I accomplish this in ONE year?”
Now, your brain starts working differently. It stops acting like a calculator and starts acting like an innovator.
You’re forced to do two powerful things:
Strip away everything that doesn’t matter
Focus with absolute clarity on what does
This is about focus and nothing else. Not hustling harder. Not working more hours.
Clarity Is a Weapon
When you set an impossible goal, it forces a level of mental precision that realistic goals never will. Suddenly, everything in your life becomes binary:
Does this move me toward the goal?
Does this slow me down or distract me?
That’s it. That’s literally the filter.
If it doesn’t help you achieve the goal, it gets tossed out.
You begin to eliminate meetings, tasks, people, habits, subscriptions, and routines that serve no real purpose. You start reclaiming your time. And, most importantly, you start seeing results.
The Real Cost of Scattered Goals
The average business person is juggling 5-10 goals at once. It’s too much. Your brain short-circuits.
You build a complex internal operating system with 100 tabs open, and none of them fully load.
Your results end up becoming mediocre output across the board. You move the needle on a few things a little bit… but never enough to change your life in a meaningful way.
Then five years go by, and you look around and realize… you’re still in the same place.
The Power of One Singular, Overarching Goal
What if, instead, you chose ONE big goal?
What if you asked yourself:
What would make me feel like I really made it?
What would completely shift my life if I achieved it?
What would make me proud to say, “I did that”?
And what if you took that big goal and said, “I’m going to accomplish this in one year.”
Not 10. Not 5. Not someday in the distance future.
One seemingly impossible year.
This isn’t a motivational gimmick either.
It’s a mental reframe.
Because once you mentally commit to making it happen now, you’ll start seeing how much of your current daily life has nothing to do with that goal.
You’ll see just how much time you waste.
You’ll notice the distractions.
You’ll become painfully aware of how much energy is going toward things that do not serve you or your business.
And that awareness is the alarm bell. That’s the turning point you're looking for.
The Exercise I Want You to Do Today
Let’s get tactical for a moment. Here’s what I want you to try.
Step 1: Write down your biggest goal in business.
This is not a dumb ass New Year’s resolution. I’m talking about the one thing that, if you accomplished it, you’d feel like you truly made it.
Step 2: Be honest about your current timeline.
How many years are you giving yourself? 5? 10? 15?
Step 3: Cross that number out. Replace it with 1 year.
Step 4: Write this down:
“If I HAD to accomplish this goal in the next 12 months, what would I need to do?”
List out every single thing that would need to happen.
Every behavior you’d need to change.
Every person you’d need to talk to.
Every commitment you’d need to let go of.
And don’t lie to yourself! Don’t downplay the challenge. Just write it all out.
Step 5: Look at your current day-to-day life and compare.
How many hours are going toward that goal?
How many tasks are actually relevant to that list?
Probably not many. And that’s exactly the point.
You Don’t Need More Time — You Need Hyper-Focus
We’ve all been tricked into thinking that time is what we need. That success is just a matter of waiting long enough.
But time, without focus, becomes wasted years.
And so you don’t need more time imo. You need more urgency.
More clarity. More intentional action.
And that starts with getting brutally honest about what’s actually moving you forward—and what’s just filling space.
My Closing Thought
If your big goal truly matters, why wait 10 years?
Why not act like it’s urgent now?
The path to real freedom, real impact, and real success starts by challenging what’s realistic and aiming for what’s just outside of what seems possible.
So, seriously ask yourself: “If I only had one year to achieve my dream life, how would I spend today?”
Now go do that.
That’s the Hauler’s Edge ✌️
Justin Hubbard
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