Leveling Up Your Game

Whether your focus is professional, academic, or personal, leveling up starts with having a specific goal. When I first start working with my clients, most of them have the generic goal of “better”. Some want better grades, others want better pay, and some want to be better in the e-sports arena. All lasting improvement starts with specificity. That’s why I always advise my clients to start with figuring out what the actual goal is. By better grades, do you mean a specific test score or course grade? By better pay, what’s your actual number? What percentage of current pay is your number? Better in the e-sports arena or winning a specific title? Once we have a specific goal, we break that down into steps. Setting the specific goal is step one. Step two is setting the first change you will honestly make.

Goal achievement cannot happen without change. Goal achievement does not happen without sacrifice. Most people know this and either sacrifice and change too much to maintain or too little to succeed. You can fast-forward this process and hit the goldilocks zone quicker by asking yourself what you actually need to change and what sacrifices are necessary to achieve and maintain the changes you make. All improvement requires a change in your way of being, and that kind of change has to be honest. If you are setting a goal that you don’t truly value, you won’t make the change or sacrifices necessary to achieve and maintain that goal.

I had a client who thought they wanted to be a professional gamer when what they really wanted was to make a living from gaming. These are very different goals. Just like wanting to be top student in graduating versus getting into a specific college. Same with wanting to be a manager versus making 50K a year. Knowing what you actually want and being really specific provides clarity. This clarity creates achievable and measurable milestones. As you achieve milestones along the way to your ultimate goal, these mini successes get through the hard times and help you persevere because they provide proof of concept. With this proof of concept you will feel in control, optimistic, and unstoppable. You will have the life you want on your terms. You will remove barriers and be successful.