Your Big Goal Isn’t as Impossible as It Looks
You are closer to your fitness ambition than you think
For a lot of people, big fitness goals have a way of looking impossible.
Running 13 miles without stopping. Lifting their own bodyweight. Signing up for a race that lasts for hours instead of minutes. Even something like swimming 500 yards can feel like a different universe when you’re not used to the water.
Most people don’t even consider the possibility of it.
It’s not the goal itself that shuts them down — it’s the distance between where they are now and where that goal sits. They look at their current fitness level and think, “That’s so far from me that it must not be for me.”
I get why. From the outside, before you start, hard things always look bigger than they really are.
That’s exactly how a Half Ironman looked to me when I first started running. The idea of swimming over a mile, biking more than fifty, and then running a half marathon felt crazy. I couldn’t picture myself doing any of it back when running a single mile was hard.
Now I’ve finished three—two of them this year—and the only thing that shifted was showing up long enough for my fitness to grow into a challenge that once felt impossible. It didn’t come from talent or being “built” for endurance. It came from putting in enough time for the work to feel familiar instead of overwhelming.
That’s why I push people not to back away from the thing that scares them. Big goals aren’t unreachable. They only look that way when you haven’t started moving toward them yet.
“The only limit to our realization of tomorrow is our doubts of today.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt
If you’re ready to take on a challenge that asks more of you, let’s talk. Book your FREE Discovery Call, and we’ll talk through what you want to take on and how coaching can help you prepare for what it demands.
Why Big Goals Feel Impossible at First
Big goals usually look impossible because people judge them from the wrong angle.
They compare the version of themselves at day one to someone who has already spent years building the fitness, strength, discipline, confidence, pacing skills, recovery habits, mindset, and everything else that makes the goal doable.
When you look at it that way, of course the gap looks huge. Of course it feels like something meant for someone else.
And that distance feels even bigger because most people only picture the finished version of the goal. They imagine the marathon, not the first two-mile run. They picture the pull-up, not the weeks of basic strength work. They see the highlight moment, not the small steps that make it real.
When you’re new, all you can see is the distance — not the process that slowly closes it.
Big goals aren’t impossible. They only look that way when you judge them from the starting line instead of from where you’ll be after a few months of steady work.
Your Capacity Grows the Moment You Begin
Once you stop judging a big goal from the wrong angle, you can finally see the part that actually matters — you can grow your capacity for anything if you start working toward it.
Growth kicks in quicker than most people expect.
A mile that feels overwhelming on day one becomes manageable after a few weeks. A 20-pound dumbbell that feels heavy at first becomes your warm-up weight. A 20-second plank that feels impossible turns into a full minute you barely think about.
None of this happens by accident.
Your body responds to whatever you repeat. Muscles adapt. Your heart gets stronger. Your pacing and confidence improve because you’re practicing them. Every small effort shifts your baseline a little higher.
And that’s when the goal stops feeling out of reach. As your capacity grows, the distance between you and the thing you want gets smaller. Two miles turn into three. A short swim stops feeling intimidating. The “no way” reaction starts to fade because you’re no longer looking at the goal from zero — you’re looking at it from progress.
Capacity isn’t fixed. It’s shaped by the work you’re willing to show up for. The moment you begin, the gap starts closing.
Let Time and Consistency Do Their Job
Once you understand that big goals aren’t impossible, the next step is to commit to the long growth curve that makes them real.
Time is the tool that makes almost any fitness ambition reachable. When you give yourself a wide enough runway with consistent effort, your body adapts, your confidence grows, and the gap between you and the goal keeps shrinking.
Most goals fit into very reasonable timelines — often far more reasonable than people expect.
A single mile can grow into a 10K, then into a half marathon, and eventually into a Half Ironman with enough time.
A handful of push-ups can grow into a strong set, then into a pull-up, and eventually into lifting your bodyweight.
A short 50-yard swim can grow into 200 yards, then 500, and eventually into a full mile in the water.
These timelines aren’t extreme — they’re the natural pace of real progress.
Week by week, the work gets more familiar. Month by month, the goal feels less distant. And as your capacity rises, the challenge that once felt impossible starts to feel like something you’re actively growing toward.
Give yourself time. Stay consistent. Your goal will meet you as you grow into it.
“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” — Lao Tzu
You’re allowed to want something big. And you’re allowed to take the time it needs.
Big goals stop feeling impossible the moment you shift your perspective, start building your capacity, and give yourself a timeline that lets the work take hold. That’s the real path toward the things that look out of reach from the outside.
It’s been six years since the version of me who struggled to run a single mile, and everything I can do today was built the exact same way you’ll build what matters to you — slowly, steadily, and with enough time for the work to shape who you become.
None of it requires being special. It just requires sticking with the process long enough for your future self to meet you.
What goal feels impossible to you right now — and who could you become by giving yourself the time to grow into it?