The Magic of Impossibility
Today is day 5 of 100 Days to 10,000 Copies, my project to launch my new book - Easy Discipline (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Audible).
THE WALL
How do you set goals?
For a long time, I’ve been advocating setting action goals rather than outcome goals. The reason is simple – you can control your actions, you can’t control outcomes.
That’s why only 9% of New Year’s Resolutions succeed (losing 15 lbs, writing a book, getting promoted, starting a business, etc. are all outcome goals). They are more demoralizing than useful.
In fact, this is a sample of my 2026 New Year’s Resolutions. They were all input goals.
Getting up by 6AM for 200 days
Exercise for 200 hours
100 deep conversations
100 walks with my dad
200 hours of “magic time” with kids
However, there is one occasion where outcome goals are useful – when they are so impossible, the pursuit creates an epic story and unforgettable experience. When the journey itself becomes the reward.
EASY DISCIPLINE PRINCIPLE – The Magic of Impossibility
When a goal is “ambitious but reasonable,” there are many ways to achieve it. In my case, trying to get 2,000 pre-orders would be a very good and reasonable goal. I can do drip-marketing. I can run Google Ads. I can focus on PR. I’ll get there.
Trying to get to 5,000 would be very hard. I would need to combine all of them, and hope everything works to perfection.
But 10,000… unless I’m Joe Rogan or Mel Robbins, that’s in the impossible territory. All the traditional, tried-and-true methods combined won’t work. (Trust me, I did the math. Unless I commit accounting fraud to appease my optimism, nothing works.)
So when traditional ways don’t work, I need to dig deep into the seldom-visited corners of my imagination and search for hidden treasures.
I came up with a combination of 14 weekly mini-goals composed of 7 tried-and-true safe methods + 7 moonshots. Think about a stock portfolio of half blue-chip stocks like Google, Nvidia, Amazon, and the other half made of early-stage startup bets sprinkled with crypto and maybe some penny stocks – most will go to zero, but one 50x return pays for all the losses and then some.
The 7 traditional tactics will give me a floor, so I don’t sell 0 books. And the 7 crazy moonshots, each with a 10% chance to succeed. Based on math, the chance of at least 1 of the 7 breaking through is 52.2%. That gives me a chance to hit 10,000 copies.
That’s why you are seeing the 10,000 Copies Wall – it’s modeled after the Million Dollar Homepage, a 2005 viral phenomenon. And you are going to see more crazy things I will try for the next 100 days, including poker and tennis. Stay tuned.
And the most important reason?
IT’S SO FREAKING FUN!!!!!
You have no idea how much of a good time we are having. Being scared, nervous, hopeful but creative at the same time? That’s priceless! It reminds me of the before-battle scene below from the Lord of the Rings.
An impossible goal turned book launch, something that most authors hate, into a 100-day journey of imagination and desperation (they come in pairs).
We have only one life to live – we can go the safe, boring, and steady routes. And for most things, you should – marriage, parenting, investment. In those departments, safe and boring pay long-term dividends.
But if you sprinkle in a few bouts of epic 100-day sprints to go after impossible goals, that’s the story you sit down and tell your grandkids.
And that’s the soul of Easy Discipline – creating stories out of thin air, turning the mundane into the epic, all ending up with achievements as by-products.
What’s your big goal? Whatever it is, how about 10x that goal, set a deadline, let your imagination run wild, and go nuts?
Are you having fun yet? I know I am.
Any time Lord of the Rings is referenced, you know it will be good! I am getting very excited to read the book!!!!!