Last week I went swimming for the first time in over a year. I thought I should take it easy, since it had been a while. I wanted to manage 500m, though, and I did. I felt pretty good about that. Until I realized that I was just taking it easy. I thought I could probably do a little bit better, if I pushed myself just a bit. Maybe I could have managed 750m if I had just kept on swimming, instead of settling for “hitting my target.”

If you aim low, you’ll never push yourself, so tonight I told myself that I would swim 1250m. I didn’t. But I managed 1050m, which is more than double what I did last time.

Remember to aim high. Even if you don’t hit your target, you may still do better than you expected.