Safe Goals Are Silent Ceilings

How Far Can You Jump?

Three people once stood at the edge of a wide, sun-cracked gap in the earth.

It wasn’t canyon-sized, but it was just far enough to make your stomach tighten. 

8 feet.
A test of courage, not distance.

A small sign nearby read:  “Can you jump across?”

It wasn’t a challenge.
Just a question.

The pessimist folded his arms. He stared at the gap like it had personally offended him.

“Not a chance,” he muttered. “So no point in trying.”

 And just like that, he turned away…safe, unscathed, and exactly where he started.

The realist crouched down, analyzing the distance.
He paced, measured, even sketched a rough diagram in the dirt.

“6 feet,” he said finally. “That’s my limit, but I’ll try!”

He backed up, took a running start, and, true to form, landed exactly where he predicted: 6 feet.

Expectations met… followed by a short fall and a puff of dust.

The optimist stretched his legs and smiled.

“10 feet,” he said with a confidence that made the others roll their eyes.

He didn’t measure.
He didn’t overthink.
He just ran and lept.

And when he leapt, for a moment, he looked like he was flying, arms wide, hair caught in the wind. He had that reckless, beautiful kind of hope that only shows up when you decide to go all in.

Now, he didn’t hit the 10 feet he was aiming for…
but he cleared the 8 easily, landing on solid ground, breathless, alive, and grinning like a fool.

The pessimist watched from the sidelines, shaking his head.

The realist dusted off his knees, replaying his jump in his head and analyzing his next attempt.

But the optimist, he’d already turned toward the next gap, ready to jump again.

Which One Are You?

Maybe you’re the pessimist, standing on the edge of your next big leap and convincing yourself it’s “not the right time.” 

You tell yourself the market’s slow, your audience isn’t ready, or you just need to fix one more thing before you go for it.

But deep down, you don’t believe you can make it, so you stay in “planning mode” where it feels safe.

Or maybe you’re the realist. the data-driven doer. You hit your targets. You plan your launches. You’ve got spreadsheets for your spreadsheets.

Your goals are “SMART,” but also… kinda small.

You meet expectations beautifully, but you don’t exceed them because you never really give yourself permission to miss.

And then there’s the optimist, the one who dreams out loud, who bets on yourself even when the numbers aren’t perfect.

You launch before your “ready.” You set a goal so bold it makes you nervous and yes, sometimes you don’t make them.

But you keep making progress because your in motion while everyone else is still calculating.

So, be honest, which one sounds most like you right now?

This isn’t about shaming yourself. It’s about honest reflection, the kind that builds self-awareness without self-judgment.

Because until you know which version of you is standing at the edge, it’s hard to decide how far you’re really ready to jump.

And I’ll be real with you, I float somewhere between the realist and the optimist most days.

Both are hard.

I hate the feeling of hitting a goal that was too easy because I know I’m capable of more. But I also hate the sting of falling short of my own expectations.

That tension between comfort and growth?  Yeah, that’s where I live and where the real work happens.

Safe Goals Are Silent Ceilings

Here’s what I’ve learned, both in my business and watching dozens of founders hit their version of “enough”: 

Safe goals feel good… right up until they don’t.

They’re tidy. Predictable. They make your Trello board look clean and your nervous system happy.

But safe goals don’t stretch you.

They sedate you.

You stop leaping.
You start managing.

You tell yourself you’re being “strategic,” but what you’re really doing is staying comfortable.

And before you know it, your business starts to feel like a well-decorated cage.

But growth requires missing sometimes. It requires testing your capacity, trusting your systems, and learning how to fail forward.

When you start setting stretch goals, the kind that make your stomach flip, you learn something numbers alone can’t teach.

You learn how to lead yourself through uncertainty.

And that skill? 

That’s the one that separates the entrepreneurs who burn out from the ones who build something sustainable.

The Weekly Challenge

So here’s your challenge this week: Before you start mentally packing up 2025, take a hard look at where you are right now.

Ask yourself —
👉 What would it look like to go all in for the rest of this year?
👉 What’s one “crazy” goal that would make you uncomfortable and proud?

Then write it down.
Say it out loud.
Tell someone about it. (I’m just an email or DM away!)

I’ll go first: my goal is to max out my 7 Figure CEO program before the year ends. Because I refuse to coast into the next chapter and so should you.

Need a little extra motivation here?

We’ve all rolled our eyes at those motivational posters —

 “Shoot for the moon and you’ll land among the stars.”
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”
“What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

Cringe? Sure. But you know what? They’re not wrong.

Because growth never happens when you’re calculating the perfect distance.

It happens mid-air when your feet have already left the ground.

Next Steps?

If this hit home and if you’ve built something that works but it’s starting to feel heavy, messy, or maxed out, then YOU are exactly who I built the 7 Figure CEO program for.

It’s for established online founders who’ve proven their model, hit their goals, and still feel stuck in reactive mode, scaling with grit instead of structure.

Inside, we rebuild that foundation.

We systemize what’s working, simplify what’s not, and design a business that grows without grinding you down thanks to a little help from AI!

Because your next level isn’t about doing more.  It’s about leading smarter with the kind of clarity and calm that comes from real structure.

If you’re ready to stop managing chaos and start scaling like the CEO you actually are, join the 7 Figure CEO program.

Let’s make the rest of this year the leap that changes everything.

You can stay safe and stay stuck. Or you can leap and see just how far you were meant to go.