One is an Olympic record-breaking swimmer; the other led GE from a $14 billion market value to $410 billion in 20 years. But what do these two highly accomplished men have in common?

Like so many great men before and after them, these two men got into the habit of setting goals so high, so lofty, that many thought them simply unachievable. Winning 8 gold medals sounds pretty unachievable to me. So does increasing a firm's market value $396 billion in 20 years. But they did it.

Phelps has said that he didn't do what a lot of "normal" kids do, hanging out on the weekends. He was willing to give that all up to train hard in order to reach his goals. Welch made a habit of setting "stretch goals". These goals were so high that when he set them, he had no idea how he would ever get there, but he made the goal anyway.

We've all heard of S.M.A.R.T. goals before (specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely), and the importance of writing these goals down. I think neither Phelps nor Welch would really think much of S.M.A.R.T goals. They probably just had S.M. goals: specific and measurable. Attainable? Who knows. Realistic? Probably not. Timely? Eventually.

All this is something of a soul-searching moment. I wonder if my goals are high enough. If I'm setting the bar at least a foot higher than I really know I can jump. If I'm going to look back on my life and know that the only way I got as far as I did was by setting the finish line a mile farther than I knew I could run.

What are your goals? Are they realistic? Or are they laughably out of reach?

Cyara Pott - Market Specialist