What if?

Do you ever find yourself playing the "what if" game? What if you had made a different choice with something in your past, whether a life decision or in business?

Sure you have. We all do.

When you're evaluating these "what if" scenarios in your head, do you ever wonder how close you came to achieving some of the goals you set but for whatever reason never did?

It's true that we shouldn't dwell on the past, but it's also worth mentioning that we all want to live a life that leaves little regret at the end of the day. So learning from our past mistakes (and victories) is an important part of our growth process.

When you want to reach anything worthwhile, you set goals. You put some effort into reaching your target. The higher the target and bigger the goal, the more effort it takes to reach it.

Simple concept, right? 1 + 2 = 3

Then if it's so simple, why is it that we sometimes don't reach the goals we set for ourselves?

On the surface, there's a relatively simple answer. Effort. The amount of effort we needed to put in just wasn't there. Why? Sometimes the reasons are external and beyond our control, but most often we allow internal issues to block us from reaching our goals.

Even more frustrating is the realization that we were probably much closer to reaching our goal than we ever realized. Water is really hot when it's heated to 211 degrees. But it's not until it reaches 212 degrees that water creates steam. Steam is what generates the power to move a locomotive, not warm water.

Whether you're working on personal goals or business ones, the lesson here is that you're probably tantalizingly close to reaching the top. Probably one tiny degree away.

Watch this short video to get a little inspiration to start making that one degree difference today.