Stop Setting QUALITY Goals & Start Setting QUANTITY Goals
What do you want to get better at?
Writing novels? Losing weight? Dating?
Balancing work and family? Speaking up in meetings? Running your sprint planning process?
Most of us approach getting better at something with a Student Mentality.
Student Mentality says “First, I study hard. Then I ace the test.”
You prepare and plan and strategize.
You do well once, on the ONE day that counts.
And then you feel good about yourself.
Well guess what, my friends? You’re not in school anymore.
There’s no teacher at the front, crafting a curriculum and handing you a test.
Life is no longer divided into “prep time” and “test day.”
The only way to get better at something is to do it lots and lots of times and fail lots and lots of times IN ORDER TO figure out what works.
Preparation and planning and “you being good at stuff” does not create quality.
QUANTITY creates quality.
And I know. You’re afraid of failure, and you don’t want to make mistakes, and the thought of doing something badly is SO very painful to you.
So here’s how we’re going to short-circuit ALL of that and just get to work:
Stop setting QUALITY goals and start setting QUANTITY goals.
Want to become a better writer?
✅ Quantity goal: Write and publish 100 pieces.
❌ Quality goal: Do NOT brainstorm and analyze and slave over 1 piece for years without publishing anything.
Want to figure out how to lose weight?
✅ Quantity goal: Make and assess 100 daily food & exercise plans.
❌ Quality goal: Do NOT spend ages researching the perfect weight loss method, try it for a few weeks, and give up the first time you mess up.
Want to have better meeting presence?
✅ Quantity goal: Speak up 5 times in every meeting for the next 30 meetings.
❌ Quality goal: Do NOT research leadership qualities, take personality tests, and prepare exactly what you’ll say in that one big meeting.
Want to fix your sprint planning process?
✅ Quantity goal: Make a list of 20 possible changes. Implement 1 of them every sprint.
❌ Quality goal: Do NOT read every article about sprint planning and try to devise the perfect process in one shot.
When you set a QUALITY goal, you over-prepare upfront and you give up too fast when you fail.
When you set a QUANTITY goal, you keep the focus on just trying stuff, again and again and again. You’re never failing because every attempt represents PROGRESS.
And as you create more and more quantity, quality will emerge on its own.
You already care about doing things well. You already love making things better.
So you will do that AUTOMATICALLY as you create more quantity. You don’t have to worry about it.
The only thing holding you back right now is your fear of making a mistake.
And the best way to short-circuit your fear of making mistakes is to give yourself a quantity goal and just focus on racking up the numbers.
Everything else will follow. I guarantee it.
PS: Does this totally make sense…but the thought of actually doing it fills you with paralyzing fear? Then you absolutely must come talk to me now.
We’ve brought the EXACT thing that’s holding you back right up to the surface.
Perfect! What a gift!
Now let’s pull it out and solve it so you can get started creating the life you want.
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