What would have to be true for your biggest goals to actually work? On strategy.

Most big goals don’t fail because they’re impossible. They fail because people never set themselves up for winning.

They fail because the plan is vague, the timeline is short, and the strategy doesn’t fit the person.

We dig into a single question that changes everything: what would have to be true for this (for YOU) to succeed?

From there, we map a decade-long vision into near-term moves you can actually execute, and we show how to replace wishful thinking with a system that compounds.

This conversation is a playbook. You’ll learn to deconstruct a bold goal into components you can build, design systems that run on bad days, and choose what to say no to so your yes actually matters.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your own ambition, this is your map from inspiration to implementation, no luck required.  

Transcript

Setting A Bold Decade Goal

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina. I'm your host. I'm your partner in change, collective and personal transformation and evolution, and just someone who is truly passionate about human potential, unlocking more of it, using more of it, creating the most beautiful world around us and living the most extraordinary lives. Today, guys, I woke up with a question. And let me read this question to you. What would have to be true for me to receive one of the thinkers' 50 awards when I'm 50? You probably don't know what this award even means, but at some point in the past couple of months, I realized, well, first of all, I truly internalized this notion that competition, the right kind of competition, drives the best in humanity. The competition not for the sake of competing and being named the best, but comparing our skills or being challenged by each other to develop the best possible solution or to develop the best possible idea, a concept, or a theory, a train of thought. Competition, true competition, drives this pursuit of what can be better, right? And so I realized a couple of months ago, you know, I never had this in my life. Like I wasn't driven by competing because I always thought that competing is uh working against someone or being compared to someone, being better. But I then realized by reading books by people smarter than myself, that actually true competition isn't about becoming the best. It's about creating the best possible, let's say, game. If you're a tennis player or just watch tennis, tennis players compete not only be at some point sometimes to become the best, but they also compete to create the most beautiful game, to figure something out, to create like the best experience for the viewer, or just the best shot that uh ever existed. So true competition is about creating or exploring better and the best in the world, what the world can be. It's all about actually unlocking potential. And so I realized I actually needed to have some competition of developing to develop the best version of myself that is yet to come out. And I realized I didn't have anything like that. I'm like, well, I truly uh love the idea of coaching as a tool to evoke, to cultivate the best in people. And I thought to myself, is there like a the best coach competition or something like that? And there is none actually, but there is this great award that I actually personally know a couple of people. One I I interviewed for this podcast, so we had Alex Osterbald, who is an innovation thinker guru, uh I don't know entrepreneur, but he was one of the people who received this award, and then also there is coach Marshall Goldsmith, who is world-known, and I am in email communication with him, and he gave me a couple of advice what to focus on in my efforts for I don't know the next couple of decades to become a great coach, someone who has really great track record and developed some unique and applicable to the world ways of thinking. So I am in contact with some of those people, and I and I look deeper into Thinkers50 award. I'm like, well, they actually have Coaching 50 and also coaching hall of fame, and they have people nominated there, and I thought to myself, well, that would actually be super cool for myself to be there in the next decade. And so that's what I woke up thinking about with this question. But this question came to be to me from a different thing in my life from reading books, and let me explain a little bit further. And again, by the end of this podcast, you're gonna have a very practical tool that you can use to reach some of your biggest goals. And yesterday, well not yesterday, but the last uh podcast episode, we talked about how to not shoot for big goals. But what I meant here, you can go for long-term goals, taking into account or planning and designing for some some short-term milestones that uh have realistically can give you a chance, a fair chance of actually getting closer to that destination. So for me, this goal of getting to your thinkers 50 list and getting the award is the journey is about being the kind of person who is truly worthy of being there because the people that I know they are remarkable with the work that they did and their and how they developed themselves. And we also I follow some of them on social media, and I see how they live in breeze, what they preach and how they deliver so much value, right? So for me, this decade journey is more about being the kind of person who is worthy of being considered, so I can honestly tell to myself, you know, yes, I deserve to be there. And right now I'm not exactly there at all. Need a few a few a few books to write, a few like really remarkable assignments in terms of my clients and the impact, and also need to speak more, need to get published more, and all of that is gonna be work in progress for my next decade. So, yes, you can have a 10-year goal because some things do take a lot of work, but then also you need to have more clear path, more strategic path of choices and decisions that realistically can lead you there, and that's where you need to focus on what I can do next year, let's say. And I'm already planning because I thought of my goals for 2026, and I realized that you know, I don't really want to get somewhere or get it in a time frame that is one year, but I do want to get somewhere like thinkers 50 award on a in a decade, and I just want my year to be something that I could say, you know, I put a dent into this journey, and I made I reached a certain milestone that shows me that I'm moving closer. That's all I want. But back to the idea of decade-long goals and strategic thinking and this question. So, Bill Gates also has this beautiful line: most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in a decade. And to that point, not long ago, I heard Alex Hermozzi, this uh really famous and the the one who produces a lot of content and speaks a lot about entrepreneurial journey, thought leader. So Alex Hermozzi, I heard him telling a story. In 2016, basically a decade ago, he had$1,000 in his bank account and he was sleeping on his gym's floor that he was renting. And this August they made more than$100 million in a weekend from his book launch 100 million money models, which he likes to prove what he writes about. So$100 million in revenue was that proof. And so what it shows you in real life and in Bill Gates' quote is that most goals, most big goals are possible, just not on the timeline you wish them for. And then back to the question: how did one of the most profound strategic long-term goal achieving questions came to be? And how did it end up in my head this morning? I just finished reading the book, Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works. One of the most profound books on strategies. Strategy, probably anyone who is into strategy read this book. So Playing to Win, How Strategy Really Works. And one of the questions from the book stood out for me, and that was the question: what would have to be true for the strategy to succeed? So in the book, the authors take you through this journey, this path of creating the strategy, what needs to be in the strategy, but then also evaluating this strategy. Because you can come up with many different strategies to achieve a certain goal, but which ones are more likely to work in your situation for you? And that was one of the key questions that stuck with me. And I'm like, uh, I need to approach not just my business like that, but also my life like that, if I want to actually win. And that reminded me of my work with clients. A lot of clients come to me for help with lifestyle, health, fitness, nutrition, with habits, formation or quitting certain habits, changing certain habits. And what I realized, I've coached for 18 years, and what I realized that every single success in coaching, when it helped to basically reshape people's personalities and identity and life, was due to one simple fact, is that we together develop new strategies for designing and living their life that work for them. Like whether if you're trying to say get the fittest, the healthiest you, and you perhaps tried certain diets, a certain program for fitness or exercise, or you tried to change your habits in a certain way, and that didn't work. But it means that that specific strategy didn't work for you. And if you really thought about who you are as a person, your skill set, your experience, your life situation, your time availability, your personality, the things that are your strengths and things that you're not that strong with. If you think about all of that, get a sip of water. If you think about all of that, what can work for you? And certain strategies might not work for you today, but will work for you once you transition to a different state, or you change certain systems in your life, or you build certain skills that will allow you to get into the strategies that actually can make your big goals work. Whether that's getting on the thinkers 50 list and getting the award or getting into the best shape of your life, the reason why certain things did not work for you is because you didn't start or didn't find the strategy that actually can or could work for you. In my work with clients, that's exactly what we do. We're not trying to change them, we are trying to look into the situation exactly and ask ourselves: well, here is the goal, and for you to reach it, what is a strategy that is more likely to work than not? And then we step by step start to working on the strategy, building skills and looking into areas of friction or areas where they fail, failed in the past and still fail a lot, and then we are deconstruct them and see okay what pieces don't work, what could work, giving again your personality, your skill set, your aspirations, how your life is designed, and step by step we start working out a strategy that can work for them. But also as a coach, I always gather as much information as I can at the beginning, so I can help them develop their strategies faster instead of just trying a bunch of things that might really not be a great fit for them, at least not in this situation. And again, a big part of our work is figuring out those actual strategies that can work for you. And so, in the book, after you ask yourself this question, like what needs to be true, what would have to be true in order for your big goal to work out, and then you see the different pieces that need to come in place. In the case of Thinkers 50 Award, the good thing about those public awards is they have criteria that are public, and you look at them. Now, these days you can also ask ChatGPT, and you can ask what things need to be true for me to be considered for that award. And then you see those different things like you need to speak more, publish more, and you need to have this distinct way of thinking and contribute to the field in a way that's worth acknowledging, and you have to have certain experiences with clients that are provable and worth noting, and all of these different aspects of it. And and then you deconstruct each element and you look at them and it's like, can you get it? Like with thinkers awards the most of the things pretty doable, especially on the 10-year horizon. But or if you decide, let's say, I don't know, you wanna become the best athlete in a certain arena, but you look at the requirements or who compete there and what are the all the things you need to be able to do, and you're like, oh, you know, that actually cannot work because whatever that reason is. And that is a good thing, because then now at the very beginning, you realize, hey, this thing might actually not work for me, and I might not win there. And maybe you do decide to reinvent the whole wheel, or you decide to go for something where you have a fair shot at succeeding, meaning like if you want to become the best basketball player and you just you know not the tall and don't have the coordination objectively, etc. Maybe it's not the goal to shoot for, but instead, there is something that's more suited for you that can give you equal satisfaction, and you might not even have discovered it yet. But the point is now that you ask yourself this question, what must be true? For that to be true, now you can deconstruct it and ask yourself honestly this question and start testing and look for evidence. Can I actually get there? And that is the difference between setting yourself up for failure and actually playing to win. And the book is great because it tells you, well, if you're in business and you're not shooting to win, then you've already lost. Like the rest of is exercise in mediocrity, and business is a very competitive environment, especially more so now that we are getting more and more people, more and more resources, more and more people are gonna enter and gonna be able to compete. Like if you're not playing to win, meaning you're not playing to use to use your strengths and your capabilities and unique advantages that only you have. If you don't have a plan, how realistically you can win, then you almost certainly will lose. And that is the point of the book, and that is the point that I'm making with you here. When you set the goal this year and in years ahead of you, whether that's a short-term goal or long-term goal, you gotta ask yourself what would have to be true for this to realistically become true, and then you gotta deconstruct that and look at all of the pieces that need to be in place in order for you to win. And you need to honestly ask yourself, do I have these pieces or can I realistically develop those pieces? And even more so, what do I need to start working on? What decisions and choices and systems do I need to create and start making on a regular basis? Things like saying no, like if you want to become thinkers 50, guess what? You're probably gonna be spending a lot of time learning and writing and speaking and doing all this work up front and not spending a lot of time going on vacations and socializing and doing all the things that everybody else does, that's just not gonna be your reality, and you gotta be very honest with understanding that that is the choice you need to make, and that has to be a consistent choice, and you gotta understand why you're making this choice that from outside might not make a lot of sense. So, are you setting yourself up to win? Are you playing to win or just hoping to get there? And again, the most important reason why you want to ask yourself those questions is because then you can honestly evaluate how you can win and go there and start developing your skills in yourself in a way that will allow you to win. And then obviously you can readjust in a year, in two, in five years, and see, you know, I worked on this and now I can actually get there. But setting yourself up for a failure from the get-go serves no one, not you, not your goals. And that's where again I worked for with my clients for 18 years, and that's what I learned. They failed because from the get-go they got the wrong strategy that didn't fit them at that point. But once they got further in their game and in their skills, that's where they could apply different strategies, and that's where you could succeed with strategies that before were not possible at that different level. And uh the the takeaway from today's podcast is to look at all of the goals of all your aspirations for 2006 and beyond. Ask yourself honestly this question. A what would have to be true for that to become reality? And then the second thing, look at all of the pieces that need to be true and ask yourself, can I create this? Do I have this? And this the next question is what do I need to say yes to and no to in order for me to realistically develop this skill set that systems to have all the pieces in place? So maybe you need to start networking or partnering with certain people and stop networking and partnering and talking and spending time with other people. Like that is what strategy is all about. It's not just having a goal in mind, it's just also asking yourself honestly this question do I have everything that I need to have? Skills and systems, etc., in order to have a chance to hit this goal, or am I just doing wishful thinking, which in life really, if ever, works. And plus, luck is not a strategy, right? Luck is always welcome and it can come to you. But realistically, if you do those things, will you have a chance without luck? Doing a lot of work to achieve that. Thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I'm hoping this episode was very useful. I think I want to add just one more little thing about lifestyle and fitness and nutrition because I spent so much time in it, and that's the area where I truly feel like I mastered that. And very often people would compliment my physique and how I look and my fitness levels, and then they would ask me for advice, and I would give the advice. I would tell them, Well, you know, you sleep on time, you put in exercise time, and you take all the supplements and you eat all the nutrition, everything that they tell you they need to do, and you know you do it consistently, and that's how you get there. And they look at me, and I can see on their faces that they think I'm joking, that it does not take that level of precision. And what can I tell you? If you see a physique of a person and they are in like 5% of the world, there's probably a chance that they are doing a lot of things that most of the people are not prepared or not doing. And you can hope that somehow luck will get you there. But a much better strategy is to actually ask people who got there to maybe ask a few of those, see the replies, see the consistent and repeatable patterns, and get grounded with yourself and ask yourself, am I prepared to do that? Or am I hoping for some kind of luck? That's it for today, guys. Uh, don't forget to please share this podcast with at least one other person who wants to create something remarkable, but not sure how to approach it. It feels overwhelming. You know, even this thinkers a word, it feels overwhelming. But once you break it down into those pieces, you're like, you know, I can actually do it. And if I consistently work on those things, I can get there. So please do share this podcast episode with that person who might be very ambitious and has all the work I think they need to achieve, but might be struggling with a better strategy on how to get there. So I advise them to pick up book playing to win, listen to this podcast, and start working. Uh, thank you guys for tuning in. Thank you for listening. I appreciate your time and attention. And till next time, keep evolving, keep learning, and keep growing.