Are You Afraid To DNF?

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When setting goals is your fear of DNF’ing causing you to set boring goals that are too easily attained and won’t motivate you? What would your goals be like if you weren’t afraid to DNF?

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4 Hour Work Week Tim Ferriss

Transcription:

Hi there, Ryan here from on property and today I want to talk about this concept of are you afraid to dnf that sentence doesn’t make sense to you right now. Don’t worry, it will by the end of the video and not talking specifically about property today, but I’m talking about goal setting and kind of the counterintuitive approach that I have to goal setting and I want to stretch your mind today around how you go about setting your goals and give you the framework that I use to set my goals that might be a bit different to yours and you can decide whether or not you want to incorporate that into your goal setting or not. This definitely isn’t for everyone. So are you afraid to dnf so dnf in running because I’m looking at running an ultramarathon at the moment. DNF did not finish, so a lot of people obviously don’t want to enter a race and finish with a d and f against their name, which means they did not finish the race.

Most people go into a race, they want to finish the race, they want to have a personal best, and I find that often when it comes to goal setting as well, people are afraid to dnf. They’re afraid to even enter a race or to set a goal that they might not finish and so often people will set these goals that are just too achievable that it makes them really boring. Like I’m not talking about setting goals that are completely unachievable for you, like I want to be a billionaire in the next year when you’re currently earning $50,000 a year or something like that. But I am talking about stretch goals. Something that you could reasonably achieve, but it would actually. You would require a massive change in your mindset or in your life in order to achieve it. And there’s a high chance of you dnf in on that goal or did not finish that goal.

So let’s talk a bit about me with this like ultra marathon thing and then we’ll bring it back into this idea of goal setting in general that you can apply to your finances. You can apply to your property goals or you can apply it to any aspect of your life. So as you may know, have you seen other videos of mine? I have what I call pseudo financial freedom, which means I have a version of financial freedom where I don’t really need to work, um, but I worked to kind of keep things going and to grow my business so I could not work, but over a number of years, eventually my income would dwindle and so I’m at the point at the moment, but an escape working at that longterm financial freedom. But being in this position allows me to try a lot of different things that a normal person wouldn’t try and to set goals for things that a normal person wouldn’t set.

Like last year I had the goal that I want it to become competitive in super smash brothers melee. And so I did practice in that for six to 12 months. I practiced that game hours each day trying to get better at it. I eventually gave up on that goal for a number of reasons, but just it was going to be too much effort and uh, my life changed and no longer became a priority. And so I put that aside and then somehow I’ve been reading, I love reading psychology books and stuff and I was reading about how to become the best at something and I read a bunch of books about people who do these ultra marathons or ultra triathlons and they’re just doing these really crazy distances to try and work out what does it take to become the best. And just got really fascinated with this idea of ultra marathons kind of thought, you know what, I would never be able to do that.

That just sounds too hard. So it never really set that as a goal. And then recently read a book that was all about like the psychology and physiology and all this science behind people who run ultras or people who run marathons found it really fascinating. And unlike, you know, what I would like to run an ultra marathon and give that a go. So that’s kind of like the journey that I took to get to the point where it’s like, okay, I would love to be able to push myself to be able to do that as well, grow my ability and my emotional strength in order to be able to push through and do that. So I thought it would be a good challenge for me to try. And so I talked to people about this and I say, you know what, I’m fascinated about ultra marathons.

I would love to run an ultra. There’s one coming up in about four months time called the black hole, 100, which is 100 kilometer race up here. I think it’s just north of where I live in Noosa. They also have a 50 kilometer race, which is the one that almost likely and talk. And so that’s in four months time. So you tell people, okay, I’m not a runner, I’ve never run thinking of running an ultra in four months time. They’re like, you’re crazy. Okay. And I agree. I’m crazy. I have no idea what I’m doing. And I’ll happily admit that to anyone, but they say to me, why don’t you run a five k, but why don’t you do a 10K or why don’t you do a half marathon or aim for something smaller first, do that and then work your way up to an ultra. But for me, the idea of running a five k like I’ve already run a five k in practice.

And so it’s like, well that’s, that’s not, that’s nothing, that’s not going to push me forward. That’s not going to change who I am as a person in order to achieve it. Even half marathon. So uninspiring to me, right? I ran a half marathon, like he couldn’t do the whole thing. So you ran a half lie. I don’t know. To me that just sounds not that great. And then as well, even a marathon to me, so many people run a marathon that it’s like you just run into the crowd if you’re run a marathon, unless you’re like really dedicated and quite a good run on sunlight. You know what? What most people don’t do, because most people aren’t crazy, is most people don’t run ultra marathons, which has anything longer than the math on length. And because I was fascinated with if in watching these dockers on it, I’m like, okay, I’m going to aim for that.

That is inspiring to me, but even though I had this goal and even though I have this ultra marathon that I’m going to into in October, I am completely expecting to dnf in this ultra marathon. So it’s only four months time. I had basically not run in years like I’ve sashes eight and I don’t think I’ve really ran in ies. Okay. And I was never really a run out before that. So for me to get in shape, I’m within four months to run an ultra marathon, which the trial runs as well. So you’re running in the bush, you running up steep hills, downstate pills, so it’s not just on flat road or anything like that. So it’s more difficult again. So the chancellor may in four months to be able to realistically run 50 kilometers, uh, and to be able to do it is quite slim.

So I’m fully expecting to dnf at this ultra marathon that I’m entering in October. Um, so, so why does this matter? Like, why am I talking about this today? Why should you care? And the me and my goal setting, I’m always setting goals that I’m totally happy to dnf on these goals because they’re not either unrealistic, but it’s really difficult and that they require you to change as a person in order to achieve them and you can’t predict that change. So for me, running like an ultramarathon I need to change so much as a person. Not only do I need to run a lot and build up my fitness of which I have non, like close to none, uh, not only do I need to do that, but like I need to learn so much about running, about trail running, about hydration, about you know, what you need to eat, all that sort of stuff.

I’m also a vegetarian as well. And so that I think might make it harder in order to push your body to these limits. And so there’s so many things that I need to learn about that I need to grow and change as a person in order to achieve this goal and if I don’t grow and change enough in the time period that I have, then I wanted to achieve it so I could set a goal of running a five k and I could easily achieve that. I wouldn’t need to change as a person to achieve that. In fact, like I’ve already done a five k, you just go out and you run it. You don’t, you just don’t stop and you just do it. Right? Like I don’t need to change. It’s not a stretch for me in order to achieve that. And so I feel like a lot of people out there set really boring goals, um, lack of lack of five k and if you love running five k, then you know, more power to you.

I think it’s a great race. Um, but it’s just, yeah, I want us to change as a person. And so it’s not for me. So this is nothing against like five k races or anything like that. But I feel like most people in their life, not just when it comes to running, but when it comes to their finances or when it comes to their career and when it comes to things like that, they set these really boring goals that are really achievable for them, that they’re. There’s really small incremental steps and that their goals were they weren’t need to change or they won’t need to grow as a person in order to achieve those goals. So the first time I heard about this concept was in a book called the four hour work week by Tim Ferris. If you haven’t read that book, you definitely should go on property.com dot a u four, one slash four hour and you can check out that book is less about working a four hour workweek than it is about 10 x your productivity.

But really good book. But in that book, Tim Ferriss talks about this idea that if you set a boring goal, that’s quite achievable. The chance of you being motivated to actually try and reach that goal and the do the things required to reach that goal is quite slim. But if you set an outrageous goal, if you said something really big that’s really exciting for you, then you’re more likely to get up in the morning, you’re more likely to push yourself in order to achieve that goal. So sometimes ridiculous goals in life can actually be easier to achieve because they pull on our emotions, they get us motivated in order to pursue them. Then really average goals. And so that’s kind of like the concept that I want to get across today is that these crazy goals, these insane goals there is really inspirational or aspirational goals that you are probably likely to dnf on.

You probably likely to actually reach these goals could be better for you than the smart goals. You know, like how people talk about smart sma art, like I don’t even remember what they stand for, but like measurable, actionable and timely, uh, there’s a whole like acronym that goes with it. So like, rather than like these little smart goals that you can definitely achieve these big aspirational goals can actually be a driving force in your life and push you to do things that you would never do. Maybe for you, the two properties to financial freedom strategy that may have been have been talking. Yeah, that’s a big aspirational goal for you. Like achieving that baseline level of financial freedom is a huge deal and that’s going to cause you to change as a person and change the way you spend money, change the way you save.

You might change your bank accounts to use the barefoot investor method, which I’ve talked about in a previous video as well, and I’ll leave the links to that in the description down below so that might be really aspirational for you and cause you to change your life and make these changes to pursue that or that might not be enough for you. And two properties to financial freedom might be a boring goal for you and you need to set something higher that you know higher on the wealth spectrum than just baseline financial freedom. I know that Google as a company have a lot of moonshot projects that they work on and in those projects they’re trying to 10 x whatever it is they’re doing. So they might be trying to 10 x internet speeds or bring costs down by 10 times in a certain area. They’ve got all of these different things that they’re working on, they’re trying to improve whatever that thing is by 10 times and so they’re going after these huge crazy audacious goals.

And so rather than trying to just improve something by 10 percent, they’re trying to improve something by 10 times. And if you’re just trying to prove something by 10 percent, you’re going to take a very different approach to if you need to 10 x something, if he a 10 x something, you need to completely throw away everything you know, okay, well not everything you know, but you need to throw away a lot of ideas. You need to come at the problem from all of these different angles. Try and come up with these really creative solutions in order to solve that problem. Whereas if you’re just trying to increase something by 10 percent, you just look at the current problem, the way you’re approaching it. You just need to be a little bit more efficient and you get there. But if you need to 10 x something, well then you’ve got to take this really creative approach and even if you don’t get to the point where you can successfully 10 exit, you might to exit or three x or five x, so the chance of you beating that 10 percent incremental growth is actually quite high.

Um, but obviously the chance of failure is higher as well. There’s that saying that I’m sure that you’ve heard shoot for the moon and even if you miss, you’ll find your place amongst the stars. I don’t know if you guys have ever heard that or not. That was always really inspirational quote for me. That’s just like, shoot for the big thing, like go for happiness in life. Go for that big stuff that you want. Because even if you miss, you’re probably going to achieve more than anyone else. You’re probably going to achieve more than you would have if you didn’t actually shoot for that big thing. So I am going to be entering this race in October, assuming training goes well. Okay. I haven’t been training for that long, but I’m pretty certain that I’ll be entering this. That’s the thing, like I’m even happy to set this goal of running an ultra, but know that I’m going to get into trading.

I’m going to work out whether or not I actually like it or not and it might not actually be my thing, so I might dnf in the fact that I didn’t even end up attending this race because I give up on this goal before I even get to Ray’s point, so I’m totally happy to set goals like that. Set these big goals, go after it hard and work out quickly. Whether or not that’s for me because then I’m spending less time, you know, wasting my time on something than if I set a smaller goal and spend a lot longer getting to it. I can work out, yes, this is for me, or no, it isn’t, and then I can move onto something else. That might make me happy, but what I’m trying to get across in this episode is that don’t be afraid to dnf on your goals.

Don’t be afraid to set goals that are so big that you likely won’t be able to achieve them and don’t be afraid to work towards those big goals. Knowing that you made dnf on the day that when I go to this race, I’m looking at this three aid stations along the way of this 50 kilometer race. The first one is that eight and a half kilometers. Okay. So for me, that’s my goal. I want to get to that first aid station and when I make it to that first aid station, I can happily give up if I want to or I can then push on to the next one. So I’m going to enter this race fully expecting to DNF, hopefully make it to that first aid station. But if I don’t, what if I don’t like what if I go to this race and I make it to their first aid station?

You’re like, you know what? I feel like I can do it. I feel like I can make it to that second aid station and then I do another 19 kilometers. I think it is to get to the second aid station and then what if I reached out second aid station and they’re like, you know what? I’m in the. I’ve already done 18 and a half. I’ve done 19 kilometers. I’ll just go one more leg to go in order to finish this race. You know what? I’m going to do it. So sometimes when you set a goal that’s so big that you fully assuming that you’re going to dnf, sometimes you find the strength within yourself. Sometimes you change within yourself. Sometimes you find a way to achieve that goal anyway. So rather than me entering a five k that I know that I could finish your 10 k that I know that I could finish.

I want to enter an ultra where I don’t know what the outcome’s going to be. I don’t know if I’m going to finish or not, but I’m hoping that I can find the strength within myself to keep going. That I can actually surprise myself and achieve more than I ever dreamed possible. And so I want to encourage you today when it comes to your goals, whether it be running like me, look, it probably isn’t that whether it be in your relationships, whether it be in your finances, whether it be your property goals, whatever it may be, don’t be afraid to set a goal and don’t be afraid to dnf on that goal, but hopefully you’ll be able to surprise yourself and you’ll be able to achieve more than you ever drained. I’m Ryan, I on property.com dot EU. I hope people invest in property and achieve financial freedom.

If you haven’t been there already, please go to on property.com dot a u. and check the sign out. All our episodes are over there. You can also book a Free Strategy Session with a team over at pumped on property. So if you’re looking at investing in property, you need someone to help you get towards your goals of owning investment property and achieving financial freedom. If you need someone to help you along the way, then that free strategy sessions are great place to start. So you’ve gotta on-property dot com, forward slash session. If that’s you, you can check that out and book a time in the calendar that suits you to look at where you are now, where you want to be, and what you’re going to need to do in order to achieve that goal. I could be better at getting a running coach at the moment. I’m not 100 percent sure if I’m definitely going to do this, but I think if I definitely am, then maybe I’ll need a coach and you might need a coach as well. So again, that links on property value. You forward session session. Go out there today, reassess your goals, decide whether or not you want to set those big goals for yourself and don’t be afraid to dnf. That’s it for me guys. Until next time, stay positive.