The Problem With Realistic Goals

Which goals are better: the ones you know how to achieve, or the ones you don’t?

Most people answer: the ones you know how to achieve.

They seem more 'realistic'. That's because goals you know how to achieve:

• Have a lower perceived risk of failure
• Don’t require you to say ‘I don’t know’
• Feel comfortable and reduce anxiety

And when your goals directly affect your salary, it’s rational to want goals you know you can hit.

However, the most successful CEOs embrace goals that they don't know how to achieve.

Once you accept that there are far more things you don’t know how to do than things you do, you start to see how restrictive these goals really are.

Goals you know how to achieve tend to:

• Lock you into known strategies
• Reduce curiosity and out-of-the-box thinking
• Massively limit your upside

Great founders face seemingly impossible goals head-on. They ask their teams to “add a zero” to the revenue goal and come up with new solutions. They’re willing to say, ‘I don’t know’ and ‘let’s think it through.’

Goals vs. Targets

Goals and targets serve different purposes.

Goals provide clarity on the long-term why. The more singular the goal, the more useful it becomes.

For example, our goal is to hit $100M in revenue in the next 3 years.

You should reflect on aggressive goals at every level of your company—even when it’s not clear how to achieve them.

That’s because thinking at this level routinely leads to new, simpler, and more effective strategies.

However, this is just a thinking exercise and shouldn't be linked to compensation.

Targets, on the other hand, provide clarity on the short-term plan, and these should be achievable.

For example, our target for this quarter is to hit $2M in new sales.

Targets should follow goals, not the other way around.

That means goals need to be clarified during planning, and targets set as a consequence of that thinking.

Ask yourself: Do you know exactly how to achieve your current goals?

If you do, you may need a bigger goal.

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Related Reading:

• Are you struggling to communicate where your company is really headed? Learn how to clearly express long-term strategy so your team moves in one direction.
• Do you feel out of sync with the CEO your company now needs? Discover how founders grow into the role without losing what makes them great.
• Are today’s decisions quietly adding friction and complexity? Learn how to use OKRs to create focus without locking in the wrong future.

Originally published on February 4, 2026.