Hi All!
Here is my weekly letter discussing mental models, performance, business and entrepreneurship.
If you love this content (please share it), but also…
Start here > https://newsletter.scottdclary.com
Check out my Podcast, connect with me on YouTube / Twitter, and read my Weekly newsletter.
The numbers speak for themselves - NordVPN protects over 14 million users with more than 7,100 servers across 118 countries, saving countless hours of buffering and providing peace of mind. As an all-in-one security solution, NordVPN helps travelers, families, and tech enthusiasts encrypt their connections with one click, change virtual locations easily, and protect up to 10 devices simultaneously - all while offering lightning-fast speeds and award-winning Threat Protection Pro features.
Ready to stop worrying about your online privacy and access your favorite content from anywhere? Start your risk-free trial with NordVPN's 30-day money-back guarantee.
Plus, if you act now, get an exclusive listener offer of 4 extra months on the 2-year plan at nordvpn.com/success - the link is in the episode description.
Transform Your Online Experience with NordVPN
“Be realistic.”
How many times have you heard that bullshit?
Every time you’ve shared an ambitious dream, someone has probably hit you with those two dream-killing words.
Your parents when you said you wanted to be an astronaut. Your guidance counselor when you aimed for an Ivy League school. Your friends when you talked about starting a business. Your partner when you mentioned quitting your job to pursue your passion.
They all say it with such conviction, as if they’re doing you a favor by saving you from disappointment.
But here’s the dirty secret no one tells you.
The people telling you to be realistic are often the same ones who gave up on their own dreams.
And even worse, the advice itself is completely backward.
99% of people are convinced they’re incapable of achieving great things, so they aim for “reasonable” goals. The irony? This makes mediocre goals the most fiercely competitive — and therefore the hardest to achieve.
The level of competition is fiercest for “realistic” goals, paradoxically making them the most time- and energy-consuming.
Let me say that again because it’s so counter to everything you’ve been told.
Unreasonable goals are often easier to achieve than reasonable ones.
This isn’t motivational fluff. It’s strategy.
I was 23 when I fell into the mediocrity trap.
Fresh out of college, I did what everyone told me was “smart” — I applied for entry-level positions that matched my qualifications. I crafted the perfect resume, tailored cover letters, and went through dozens of interviews for “reasonable” jobs.
Six months later, I was still unemployed, competing against 300+ applicants for each position.
Meanwhile, my friend Jake — who everyone called “unrealistic” — decided to start a specialized consulting business targeting a very specific problem in an industry he was passionate about. He had no formal credentials. He just saw a gap and went for it.
Within three months, he had four clients and was making more than the salary I was desperately chasing.
The difference? Jake was fishing where few people were casting their lines.
Society has programmed us with a dangerous equation.
Small goals = achievable Big goals = unrealistic
But here’s what actually happens.
Small goals = intense competition = harder to achieve Big goals = less competition = often easier to achieve
The school system teaches us this broken model. Get good grades (but not too good, that’s showing off). Get a decent job (but don’t aim too high, that’s unrealistic). Buy a reasonable house (but not too nice, you can’t afford that).
We’re conditioned to swim in the middle of the river, where the currents are strongest and everyone else is fighting for space.
Before we talk about how to set unreasonable goals, we need to understand the cognitive prison most people live in.
Your mind doesn’t create your thoughts. Your environment does.
If you’ve been surrounded by reasonable people your entire life, you’re going to think reasonable thoughts. You’re going to set reasonable goals. You’re going to achieve reasonable outcomes.
The unreasonable thinking required for massive success isn’t taught in schools. It isn’t promoted in most families. It isn’t celebrated in most social circles.
The average person absorbs 10,000+ messages per day from parents, teachers, friends, media, and society — and 99.9% of those messages reinforce reasonable thinking.
The reasonable mind is an evolutionary adaptation designed for survival, not thriving.
Your ancestors survived by not taking unnecessary risks. By sticking with the tribe. By not standing out too much.
But the same psychological adaptations that kept your ancestors alive are now keeping you average.
The first step to unreasonable achievement is recognizing that your “realistic” thinking is a conditioned pattern, not an objective assessment of what’s possible.
When I finally abandoned my “reasonable” job search and decided to pursue something that genuinely excited me — a role that seemed out of reach — something strange happened.
The competition thinned out dramatically.
But more importantly, my energy transformed. I was no longer dragging myself through applications. I was energized, working longer hours with more focus than ever before.
Having an unusually large goal is an adrenaline infusion that provides the endurance to overcome the inevitable trials and tribulations that go along with any goal.
Most people misunderstand what motivation actually is and where it comes from.
Motivation isn’t something you have. It’s something you create through your targets, your environment, and your internal dialogue.
Your brain reacts completely differently to massive goals than it does to boring, safe ones.
When you set reasonable goals? Your brain barely releases any dopamine. It’s like “Yeah, whatever, I can do this easily.” And that’s exactly why you put in minimal effort.
But unreasonable goals? They flood your brain with dopamine. Your brain lights up like “Holy shit, imagine if we actually pulled this off!” It goes into full-on hunter mode, ready to work harder because the prize actually matters.
This isn’t some woo-woo self-help concept. It’s how your brain is literally wired. It won’t get off the couch for a 5% improvement, but it’ll move mountains for a 10x breakthrough.
Think about it.
When was the last time you felt genuinely excited about a “realistic” goal?
When was the last time a “sensible” target got you out of bed at 5 AM?
Realistic goals create realistic effort. Unreasonable goals create unreasonable effort.
Consider Roger Bannister, who broke the 4-minute mile when experts said it was physically impossible. Or Elon Musk, who started building rockets when everyone said only governments could do that.
Were they more talented than everyone else? Maybe. But more importantly, they aimed for targets that others dismissed as unreasonable — and found less competition there.
As Tim Ferriss puts it: “The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits.”
The real reason we don’t set bigger goals isn’t that we can’t achieve them.
It’s that we’re afraid. But not in the way most people think.
There are three specific psychological barriers that keep people locked in mediocrity.
Your current identity — how you see yourself — is the invisible force determining what goals you’ll consider “reasonable.”
If you see yourself as “not the type of person who can start a business” or “not the type of person who can get in amazing shape,” you’ll never set unreasonable goals in those domains.
Most people never overcome this barrier because it requires the painful process of identity dissolution — letting go of who you think you are to become who you could be.
Humans are tribal creatures. We’re wired to seek approval from our tribe.
Setting an unreasonable goal means, by definition, that most people won’t understand or support it. This triggers a primal fear of rejection more powerful than most people realize.
The desire for social validation keeps millions locked in mediocrity, pursuing the same goals as everyone else just to hear “that makes sense” instead of “you’re crazy.”
This is the most insidious barrier because it masquerades as wisdom.
“I’m just being realistic.” “I’m just being practical.” “I’m just being responsible.”
These phrases are comfort zone protectors disguised as maturity. They’re your brain’s way of avoiding the discomfort that comes with unreasonable goals.
Realistic goals fuel comfortable effort. Unreasonable goals demand uncomfortable growth.
The path beyond these barriers isn’t motivation. It’s not willpower. It’s not even discipline.
It’s understanding the game being played and consciously choosing to play a different one.
Here’s what nobody tells you about motivation. It’s designed to die.
Motivation is an emotion. And like all emotions, it fluctuates. It comes and goes.
That’s why “realistic” goals are doomed from the start. The moment your motivation dips — which it inevitably will — you’ll quit.
Realistic goals, goals restricted to the average ambition level, are uninspiring and will only fuel you through the first or second problem, at which point you throw in the towel.
Unreasonable goals operate differently. They create something more powerful than motivation. Momentum.
When your goal is so compelling that it pulls you forward even on your worst days, you’ve created momentum. And momentum, unlike motivation, builds over time.
Think about the difference.
Motivation is deciding to go to the gym today because you feel like it.
Momentum is going to the gym today because that’s just what you do now, regardless of how you feel.
Unreasonable goals create identity shifts. You stop being someone who’s “trying to write a book” and become “a writer.” You stop “trying to build a business” and become “an entrepreneur.”
The identity carries you when motivation fails.
Setting and achieving unreasonable goals isn’t just about positive thinking or “believing in yourself.” It’s about understanding the strategic psychology of human achievement.
Most people use a linear approach to goal-setting.
Assess current abilities
Set a goal slightly beyond current abilities
Work incrementally toward that goal
This approach seems logical, but it’s fundamentally flawed for three reasons.
When you set a goal based on what you can do now, you box yourself in. You can only see improvements that make sense based on where you already are.
But here’s the thing: Real breakthroughs never come from just doing a bit more of what you’re already doing. They come from completely reimagining what’s possible.
Incremental goals create incremental effort, which is easily derailed by life’s inevitable obstacles. Every obstacle becomes a potential endpoint because the goal itself doesn’t generate enough psychological momentum to power through.
Unreasonable goals have built-in survivorship filters — they’re difficult enough that only the truly committed persist.
This is why the completion rate for marathons (an unreasonable goal for most people) is over 90%, while the completion rate for simple New Year’s resolutions is under 20%.
The unreasonable commitment filters out everyone but the committed, making success more likely, not less.
Reasonable goals keep you locked in your current paradigm — your way of seeing and approaching the world. They encourage you to do more of what you’re already doing, just slightly better.
Unreasonable goals force paradigm shifts. They require you to completely reimagine your approach, your strategies, and your identity.
This is how innovation happens — not through incremental improvement but through paradigm shifts.
Let me give you a practical framework for setting and achieving unreasonable goals.
Whatever your instinct tells you to aim for, multiply it by 10. This isn’t about being delusional — it’s about escaping the crowded waters of mediocrity.
When I started my first business, my initial goal was to make enough to replace my salary. That put me in competition with every other side-hustler and freelancer. When I 10X’d my goal, I had to completely rethink my approach, which led to much faster growth.
But don’t just make the goal bigger — make it different.
The 10X Mind Shift isn’t just about size — it’s about category.
Instead of trying to be 10X better, try to be the only one in a new category. This is what Peter Thiel means when he says to go from “0 to 1” instead of “1 to n.”
Forget the “reasonable” test. Apply the “Would You Laugh?” test instead.
If someone told you they were going to achieve your goal in half the time with half the resources, would you laugh at them?
If not, your goal isn’t unreasonable enough.
The most successful entrepreneurs I know all share one thing. Their early goals sounded laughable to most people.
The greatest advantage of pursuing unreasonable goals is that you don’t know what’s “impossible.”
Experts are often the worst innovators because they’re constrained by what they “know” to be true. As a non-expert, your naïveté is actually your superpower.
Virgin Airlines succeeded because Richard Branson, with no airline experience, asked questions no industry veteran would ask. His lack of expertise was his advantage.
What industry rules can you break because you don’t know they exist?
You become the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you’re surrounded by people with conventional goals, you’ll be pulled toward conventionality.
The solution isn’t just to find “positive” people. It’s to find people with unreasonable goals of their own.
I call this your “Anti-Average Alliance” — a group of people committed to unreasonable achievement.
When I wanted to become a writer, I joined a group where everyone was already successfully publishing. Their expectations became my normal.
Break your unreasonable goal into daily actions that, compounded over time, make achievement inevitable.
But here’s the key. The daily action should feel slightly unreasonable too.
If your goal is to build a million-dollar business, a reasonable daily action might be “make 5 sales calls.”
An unreasonable daily action might be “have 1 conversation that scares you” or “solve 1 problem no one else is solving.”
The daily actions should look different from what someone with a “realistic” goal would do. That’s the point.
One of the most overlooked aspects of unreasonable goals is their asymmetric risk-reward profile.
With reasonable goals, what’s the best that could happen? Small win. Worst case? Small failure. Boring as hell either way.
But with unreasonable goals? Best case is you change your life forever. Worst case is usually the exact same small failure you’d get with the safe bet.
It’s like gambling but rigged in your favor:
Safe Bet: Risk $100 to maybe win $150 Unreasonable Bet: Risk $100 to potentially win $10,000
Any investor, trader, or gambler will tell you — bets with asymmetric upside are the only ones worth taking.
Yet most people choose the symmetric bet every time, not realizing that they’re actually making the riskier choice in the long run.
Playing it safe is the riskiest strategy of all.
And here’s where it gets even more interesting.
When you make the asymmetric bet on an unreasonable goal, there’s one invisible force that will try to sabotage you at every turn: your timeline expectations.
Most people think they can conquer the world in a year then get pissed when it doesn’t happen. Meanwhile, they completely underestimate what they could build in ten years.
This screws people up. They think if they can’t achieve their massive goal fast, it’s not worth doing at all.
But every “overnight success” you’ve ever heard of was actually years in the making. Years of grinding when no one was watching.
Jeff Bezos spent years building Amazon before it became profitable. Stephen King wrote for years before publishing his first novel. LeBron James practiced for thousands of hours before entering the NBA.
The timeline illusion leads many to abandon unreasonable goals just before the exponential payoff arrives.
The solution isn’t to set more “realistic” timelines. It’s to commit to the long game while maintaining the day-to-day urgency of short-term execution.
The unreasonable goal is your North Star. The daily unreasonable action is your spacecraft. Time is just the distance between them.
And this leads us to the most powerful paradox of all.
Here’s the final paradox. Even if you don’t fully achieve your unreasonable goal, you’ll still go further than those who aimed for reasonable ones.
A person who aims to build a billion-dollar company and “only” builds a $100 million company has still accomplished more than someone who aimed for a million and achieved it.
The person who aims to write a bestselling book and “only” sells 10,000 copies has still outperformed countless writers who never finish their manuscripts.
By aiming unreasonably high, you give yourself permission to achieve what others consider remarkable, even if you fall short of your ultimate vision.
The higher you aim, the higher you’ll land when you fall.
This isn’t just some nice philosophical concept. It’s practical strategy.
If you’re going to put in the time and effort anyway, why aim for something that won’t change your life even if you succeed?
Let’s be brutally honest. Most “unreasonable” goals are delusions.
But here’s the secret. All great achievements started as delusions.
The most important innovations in history came from people with unreasonable goals.
The Wright brothers believing humans could fly Steve Jobs believing computers should be beautiful and intuitive Marie Curie believing a woman could excel in science when society said otherwise
These weren’t just big goals. They were paradigm shifts that faced enormous resistance — until they succeeded and became the new normal.
What delusion are you willing to believe in long enough to make it real?
The world doesn’t advance through reasonable goals. It advances through unreasonable ones that eventually become reasonable in retrospect.
Your unreasonable goal might be exactly what the world needs next.
So let me bring it full circle.
Remember how we started? 99% of people are convinced they’re incapable of achieving great things. That’s not because it’s true. It’s because they’ve never tested the limits of their capabilities.
You are better than you think. The competition is worse than you imagine. And your unreasonable goal is more achievable than you know.
The fishing is best where the fewest go, and the collective insecurity of the world makes it easy for people to hit home runs while everyone else is aiming for base hits. There is just less competition for bigger goals.
The only question is: What unreasonable goal will you pursue?
- Scott
Subscribe to get this newsletter in your inbox, every week.
Hubspot — https://hubspot.com/
NordVPN — https://nordvpn.com/success/
My First Million Podcast — https://www.mfmpod.com
Tailor Brands — https://www.tailorbrands.com/podcast35
FreshBooks — https://www.freshbooks.com/pricing-offer/
NordVPN — https://nordvpn.com/success/
Porkbun — https://porkbun.com
Bank On Yourself — https://www.bankonyourself.com/scott
BambooHR — https://www.bamboohr.com/freedemo
NetSuite — https://netsuite.com/scottclary/
Indeed — https://indeed.com/clary
Scott D. Clary
