Insight with Chris Van Vliet - What Does "Vague Goals Get Vague Results" Actually Mean?

Episode Date: August 27, 2021

It's the phrase that has completely changed my life. Vague goals get vague results. In this episode I break down exactly what that means, where it came from and how can you apply it to your own life. Stop making excuses and start crushing your specific goals. As Greg Reid says: "A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams come true." Let me know what your goals are so we can all cheer you along. Tag me on Instagram or Twitter @ChrisVanVliet and use the hashtag #VagueGoalsGetVagueResults If you enjoyed this episode, could I ask you to please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcast/iTunes? It takes less than a minute and makes a huge difference in helping to spread the word about the show and also to convince some hard-to-get guests.  For more information about Chris and INSIGHT go to: https://chrisvanvliet.com Follow CVV on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/ChrisVanVliet Twitter: twitter.com/ChrisVanVliet Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisVanVliet YouTube: youtube.com/ChrisVanVliet Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

All systems are going. Ladies and gentlemen, Chris. How are you, my friends? Welcome back to another audio adventure here on Insight. Thank you so much for being with us for this solo episode. I love being able to hang out with you one on one like this. And today I want to dive into the phrase that has completely changed my life. Vague goals get vague results.

Where did it come from? What exactly does it mean? and how can it help you in your own life? These are all great questions. And hopefully by the end of this, this will be a phrase that changes your life as well. If you haven't yet, you can follow me on Instagram or Twitter. I'm at Chris Van Fleet.

It's simple. It's just my name. I'm also on TikTok. It's Chris. Dot Van Fleet on TikTok. And let me know what you want to hear in the next solo episode like this. I want to hear your suggestions.

I'm guessing you already subscribe to the podcast because you're listening right now, but if not, please take a second right now to click subscribe or follow wherever you're listening to this. It takes half a second. That's it. I don't ask for money. I don't have a Patreon. Just hit subscribe so we can hang out each and every week.

Okay. Vague goals get vague results. I'm sure you've heard me say it before. Hey, I even put it on a T-shirt. And it came from the idea that a lot of people set goals with no real direction. Stop me if you've heard one of these before. I'm going to lose some weight this year. I want to read more often.

I'm going to be more active. I want to make more money. Maybe you've even said one of these yourself. All of these are perfect examples of extremely vague goals. It's kind of like getting into your car without knowing where you're headed. You're just going to drive around aimlessly because you don't have a destination. How long will that drive be? will you end up in Tennessee or Tijuana?

Take that first one on the list there, for example. I'm going to lose some weight this year. Well, if you lose one pound at some point over the calendar year, congratulations. You have accomplished your goal of losing some weight this year. But I'm guessing that that's not what the person meant when they said that. The opposite of vague goals get vague results is, specific goals get specific results. Take that other one, for example. I want to make more money.

Well, if you make one extra dollar, you have now made more money. A better version of that weight loss goal would be something like, I am going to lose 10 pounds by July 31st, or I'm going to lose 25 pounds before my birthday, a specific number with a specific date. Instead of saying, I want to make more money, you can maybe say, I'm going to earn 100 extra. this week or every week for the rest of the year. You've seen me do this all the time. I mean, most recently, I did it on the podcast. I didn't say, yeah, I want to get more reviews.

I said a very specific number and a very specific date. I said, let's hit 2,000 reviews before my birthday, May 19th. And guess what? With your help, we did it. We're well over 2,000 now. What was so cool about that, though, is we could all go watch it from 1,500 reviews, which is around what we were when we started. It went from 1,500 to 1,5 to 1,500 to 1,700 to 1,700.

It just kept building and so on and so on. We knew exactly where we were headed and how much we had left before we got there. And I think what really helped that goal get accomplished was I made it public. I put it out there on the podcast. I put it on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram. Instagram. So now I needed to be accountable for because I put it out there. And now we all were in this together. We all knew how much further that we had to go. And think about that with whatever goal it is that you're headed towards. If it's something to do with diet or weight loss, make it public.

Put it out there. Now you've got a team of supporters to cheer you on. And you've also got people that are going to keep you in line when they see a donut in your hand or you're in line for your forth helping at Golden Corral. But hey, I get it. That chocolate wonderful, Golden Corral. So good. The great Brian Tracy said it best when he said, a goal without a plan

is only a dream. And Greg Reed took it one step further when he said, A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action makes your dreams

come true. And this has been a theme for me throughout my entire career. And I'm so incredibly grateful for the fact that I've been working in television since 2005. But when I was about to graduate from college, I went to Wilford-Lorea University in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. I studied communication studies, and I knew that I needed an internship when I graduated to hopefully get my foot in the door that would maybe possibly turn into a job. I knew if I worked really, really hard with that internship, that I could get like a demo reel,

which is a term in the industry, in the television industry, which is like a sample of the stuff that you've done on TV. I knew I could take that demo reel and hopefully get a job somewhere. So I set the goal. I needed an internship before the school year was done. So I needed an internship by April 30th.

And I reached out to every radio station and every TV station, and I heard crickets. So then I found that I knew there was a TV station about an hour away from my hometown, Czechs TV in Peterborough, Ontario. And I googled and found the name and the email address of the general manager who ran the station.

And I sent him an unsolicited email and said, hey, I'm going to be in Peterborough next week for spring break. It'd be great to come in and talk to you about an internship. This was a total lie. I hadn't been to Peterborough. bro in like 10 years. I had no intention of going there. But he wrote back and said,

well, if you're going to be in town, yeah, come on by. And I basically, you know, I talked about getting the foot in the door. I basically, the door was like a tiny little crack. And I jammed my foot in that door. And got the internship. That internship ended up turning into a job. That job turned into another job.

And to make this long story short, the rest is history here. So for you, maybe your goal is career-oriented. Perhaps your goal has something to do with your relationship. Maybe it's your family. Maybe you want to spend more time with your kids. Perhaps it's fitness-related.

Maybe you want to lose some weight or run a marathon. Maybe you want more subscribers on YouTube, followers on Instagram, whatever it is. Maybe you want to start making money from your podcast because right now it's not making any money. Whatever it is, get specific about it. Figure out what that goal is. figure out what the path is to get there and write it down.

Write it down today. In fact, put it out there on Twitter or Instagram and tag me. Tag me with a hashtag vague goals, give vague results. So then we can all cheer you on as you head towards that specific goal that you are going to crush. You've got this, my friend. If somebody out there is doing the thing that you want to do, that just means that you can do it too. reverse engineer their path back to where you are. Maybe they're at step 47 and you're at step two.

Well, figure out with step 46, 45, 44, 43 all the way back to where you are is. Figure out all of those steps in between. And most importantly, don't make excuses about it. Okay? Nobody is any more talented than you. Nobody has any more time than you do. If you want to do it, you'll find a way. and if you don't, you'll find an excuse.

So there we go, my friends. Hope you enjoyed another solo adventure here on Insight. Let me know what you thought. Let me know what you want to hear on the next one of these. Should we do them every week, every month, every two months? Let me know. I'm also looking forward to seeing your goals with that hashtag vague goals, get vague results on Twitter and Instagram.

Thank you so much for being with. us and until the next one be great be grateful we will see you on the next one for some more insight the hammer alley podcast an 80s flashback mockumentary back in the 80s there were a thousand bands trying to make it in the world of rock but there was one band that had it all hammer alley whatever happened to hammer alley how did they go from top of the rock i'm looking for a music video they're a band from 1987, Hammer Alley. Ever heard of then? To Rock Bottom. Dude, I was born in

1987. I can't believe he's doing this. Hammer Alley. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.