Question to achieve your big goals:

What are the lesser goals keeping you from your real goals?

I recently came across a quote that hit me hard:

"We are kept from our goals not by obstacles but by a clear path to lesser goals." - Robert Brault

It's easy to blame external factors for our failure to achieve our goals.

It's much harder to turn inward, to reflect on whether the accessibility of lesser goals is really what holds us back.

Here's an example from a recent experience in my own life:

Over the last few months, I've been training for a marathon (which I'm running this weekend). I ran 2:57:31 in my first marathon last fall, but have set an ambitious goal of running sub-2:50 in this one.

During every race and difficult workout, I've noticed there is an internal conversation that starts as soon as it gets hard:

"This is hard. Why am I doing this? This is stupid. The goal time is too ambitious, I don't need to hit that. It's still an improvement if I slow down to an easier pace."

That internal dialogue is the greatest risk to you achieving your big goals in life.

When things get hard, the mental gymnastics start. You start convincing yourself that it's ok to ease up, that the clear path to your lesser goals looks pretty darn good.

Your success in life will be determined by your ability to push back on that internal dialogue.

Next time you find yourself hearing that naysayer in your head, try responding with this:

"Yes, this is hard, because it's supposed to be hard. That's what makes it worth doing. I love hard. I'm built for this."

It's ok to fall short of your ambitious goals if you gave it your all, but it's not ok to fall short of those goals because you let yourself off the hook.

This is supposed to be hard. Embrace it.

Quote on the internal competition:

“A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it. It just blooms.” — Sensei Ogui

The time you spend comparing yourself to others is much better spent investing in yourself.

The only comparison worth making is to you from yesterday.

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Framework for navigating life's chaos:

The Riptide Mentality

Here's a powerful idea I've been thinking about...

A riptide is a strong ocean current that flows directly away from the shore. A swimmer caught in a riptide is pulled out into the open water. The obvious instinct is to fight the current, but it's entirely wrong. Even the best swimmers are unable to fight against that current. In fact, last year, almost 100 people died in riptides in the U.S. alone.

The recommended course of action when you're caught in a riptide is to relax and let it take you out into the open water. Once the current dissipates, you swim parallel to the shore and then in. You conserve energy by not fighting the riptide, and then use your energy to return to shore once outside its grasp.

This is what I call the Riptide Mentality:

At certain times in your life, there are going to be subtle, hidden, external forces conspiring against you—pulling you further away from your desired destination.

In these moments, your instincts will tell you to fight back against those forces. You'll breathe faster, push harder, and strain against them.

But these instincts may lead you astray:

You may be caught in a riptide—and in a riptide, the best course of action is the opposite of what your instincts tell you.

In these moments, when you feel the currents are too strong to resist, allow yourself the freedom to relax and let it take you.

Once it inevitably dissipates, you will have the energy and fortitude to safely navigate to your destination.

So the next time you feel those intense forces conspiring against you, and your instincts tell you to strain and fight back, consider the Riptide Mentality:

Perhaps the best course of action is to conserve energy now and deploy it more effectively later.

Find your dance partner:

No one ever found their dance partner by standing up against the wall.

Startup I'm excited about:

Every now and then, I come across a startup whose mission excites me so deeply that I have to find a way to invest.

​Solace​ is one of those startups.

The healthcare system can feel like an endless maze of complexity, misaligned incentives, and asymmetric information. Solace helps patients find care advocates who serve as expert guides to navigate that maze.

They're scaling rapidly and ​recently announced their Series A fundraise​.

A great example of doing well by doing good! ​Check them out​ for yourself or your loved ones.