Is Announcing My Goal a Good Idea?
100 Days to 10,000 Copies
Today is day 4 of 100 Days to 10,000 Copies, my project to launch my new book - Easy Discipline (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible).
THE WALL
Over the past few days, I have received so many emails from you showing me love and encouragement. One of them is from one of my best friends and spiritual mentor. He thought I was flying high and being so confident.
My reply: “I have a lot of fear I am battling every day. What if I don’t succeed? What if I land on 500 books instead of 10,000? I don’t have everything figured out. I suffer from these anxieties just like everyone else. Me doing this campaign publicly is just my way to cope.”
Writing this out makes me feel a lot better. So I want to share with all of you.
Especially the “Me doing this campaign publicly is just my way to cope” part.
Most people keep their biggest goals to themselves, mostly because if they don’t succeed, they can change course comfortably. There are also scientific reasons: the initial public feedback and support can reduce your brain’s desire to take the necessary actions.
That said, I take the opposite stance on this - you should shout your goal at the top of your lungs to everyone you care about. It’s an Easy Discipline principle called the Baby Shower Shout.
EASY DISCIPLINE PRINCIPLE: The Baby Shower Shout
When I hit 30 and Tracy was pregnant, I thought my entrepreneurial dream was over. No way I could leave my cushy corporate job now with my new responsibilities.
Until I did this: at Tracy’s baby shower, when all our family and friends showed up for support, I publicly announced that I’m going to start my own company. Everyone was shocked, and no one knew what to say. Then it went into hesitant applause.
But I wasn’t there for their applause and support. I was there to burn my boat, publicly. I was there to create nuclear pressure and accountability for myself. I might fail, but there is no way I quit. Not in front of my in-laws, closest friends and colleagues.
So I went hair-on-fire. That type of desperation forced every ounce of creativity out of me, resulting in crazy ideas like 100 Days of Rejection Therapy.
I called that move The Baby Shower Shout - proclaiming your goal to the people who matter to you the most (the ones who care about you enough to come to your wedding or baby shower), if not the whole world.
In fact, 100 Days of Rejection Therapy was also a Baby Shower Shout - I told the world I was gonna do rejection for 100 days. And I did.
History is littered with Baby Shower Shouts like this:
JFK said “We choose to go to the moon in this decade.”
Muhammad Ali predicted he’d knock out Charlie Powell in the third round, and he did.
Joe Namath famously made his guarantee: “We’re gonna win the game. I guarantee it,” before winning Super Bowl III.
Now, not all Baby Shower Shouts come true. Elon Musk (when he was still cool) was famous for announcing and missing impossible goals.
In December 2015, he stated Tesla cars would be able to drive themselves in two years. FSD isn’t fully reliable until 2024.
In 2016, he said SpaceX would land a capsule on Mars by 2018. Eight years later, we are still waiting.
He missed all his marks, but that’s not the point. He used the public pressure to force his companies to compress decades’ worth of progress into years, if not months.
Today Tesla is worth over 1 trillion dollars, and SpaceX is about to go public, possibly valued at 2 trillion dollars.
You shoot for the stars (or Mars) and land on the moon.
So this is my move - telling you and everyone I care about I’m going to sell 10,000 copies in 100 days.
Is this insane? Yes. Am I scared? Look at the sweat drop down my beautiful cheek... actually I just finished my Peloton.
This is the only way I know how to live. And this is how to make hard goals EASY.
What’s your future Baby Shower Shout? Let me hear it in the comments.