# Ambitious goals make things happen You need to set ambitious goals. While your goals should be SMART, you should have ambition. **Ambition is a powerful force and a powerful driver for learning and growing**. Setting ambitious goals helps make things happen. That’s because the gap between who you are and who you need to become to achieve great things can be large. And while it might be scary at first, it’s also a way to grow. When you explore and define what your life and career goals are, you want to dream big. Stay realistic, but don’t hesitate to challenge yourself. If you don’t, then you’ll remain in your comfort zone, and you won’t be able to make much progress. That’s also why I recommend to **organizing your goals in three buckets: short-term, medium-term, and long-term**. > [[The longer the time horizon, and the more ambitious your goals should be]] There’s a famous quote that summarizes this quite well: > [[Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten years]] (aka [[Gates' Law]]) ## References - [[Nicolas Cole]] on how to stop being average: https://twitter.com/Nicolascole77/status/1717557738916475120 ## Related - [[Big and hairy goals]] - [[12 favorite questions or problems]] - [[How to stop being average]] - [[The crucial role of setting and pursuing goals]] - [[SMART Goals]] - [[The longer the time horizon, the more ambitious your goals should be]] - [[Why time horizons matter]]