We want to appeal to our target market. Catch the attention of prospective clients. So we all have goals of some sort, but how many and how big should these goals be?

Have you ever wondered why the bullseye on a dartboard is the smallest circle on the board? No. You probably haven't, and neither have I, but stay with me for a minute.

It seems clear that to be good at throwing a dart, accuracy is key. The bullseye offers a focal point for the task. If the 'bullseye' was the largest circle on a dartboard and somebody said they could hit that easily, you probably wouldn't trust their accuracy too much.

While I don't play darts, I do have targets. Darts is great because the board stays the same, but in the business world, setting those targets is down to us. Sometimes, these targets loose clarity. They expand too much to be useful. This is where it is important to bring the sights in and '“focus on the intense few, not the lukewarm many” (Tim Ferriss). This quote (illustrated above) which I heard on a Tim Ferriss Podcast immediately struck a chord with me. It is far too easy to try to please everyone, try to cover everything and do it all, but it's not effective.

“I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”
– Bill Cosby

So it’s time to take a step back, look at everything you’re doing or clients you’re targeting and start to refine those goals. Perform an 80/20 analysis on your clients/products/services/commitments and find the 20% which provide you with 80% of your income and happiness. This will show you where you should be focusing. It will strip the outer circles of your target and give you more focus, and time to achieve what is really important to you and your business. In addition to your own clarity, it will help your customers and audience to see exactly why you can help them. The first advert for the iPod was '1,000 songs in your pocket'. They didn't go on about battery, capacity, size or colour, they just stated the one, clear, loveable benefit.

In this short Video, Gary Vee and Casey Neistat discuss ‘How to Stay Focussed on your goals’ in the #AskGaryVeeShow. Check out what Casey says from 1:30 onwards on the topic of focussing and learning to say No.

Find the way you can stand out rather than fighting 'me too' markets. Fine the intense few. Disregard the lukewarm many. Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired) has been referenced with one of the best essays on how to build the perfect audience. His essay ‘1,000 True fans’ has been cited multiple times and even featured in Tim Ferris’s best selling book ‘Tools of Titans’ which has been an amazing reference resource for me since it’s release in 2008. Check out Kevin’s full article, in all it’s updated glory, here: https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/

With all of this in mind, it’s worth knowing, Sometimes we have to let the small losses happen to find time to make the big wins happen. This is how focussing on the most important goal works. Some smaller goals may be missed, but the most important goal will get tackled.

(Now take this process and apply it to your work, eating habits, fitness goals, surfing, skating, etc..)