Your “big win” in One Big Win should confer a lasting improvement to your life situation. It should enrich you personally in some way, add something rewarding to your life, increasing your skill, income, knowledge, or future possibilities.

It’s likely going to be something you’ve always wanted to do, but never “had time.” As we discussed in the previous lesson, countless goals could fit the bill, and you’ll have to decide which is the best candidate.

For now, I want to talk about goals in general, and a particular way of thinking about them.

Goals as Quests

The word “goals” is necessary when discussing aspirations and intentions, but I personally don’t find it very inspiring. It sounds so abstract, corporate, bland. The word “goal” makes me think about PowerPoint presentations and staff meetings.

What we’re trying to do in OBW is more personal than just meeting a productivity quota. You’re here because you intend to take on and achieve a meaningful personal victory, bringing into your life an elusive prize that will change your future. This involves not just time and effort, but a willingness to engage with forms of inner resistance that have foiled you in the past. By taking this course you’re doing something genuinely heroic, and thinking of it that way can help you with its challenges.

This is why I encourage you to think of your project as a quest. Assuming your big win is something you’ve never done before — and it should be — you’ll be crossing a frontier into new territory, where you’ll meet as-yet-unconquered challenges. You’ll need to draw on your resources, find a way to get the miles behind you, and test your resolve to push through to the end.

There are several differences between a goal, and a proper quest:

• A quest is an adventure. To take on a goal is just to aim at a different situation. To take on a quest is to strike out into a new and unknown landscape, and there’s something exciting about that. You’re voluntarily entering a realm you don’t yet know how to traverse. There will be perils, odd encounters, doubts, puzzles, and surprises. You’ll do things you didn’t know you could do.

• A quest changes you, not just your situation. A goal is practical. It makes sense to do; it has benefits. A quest is transformative. The endeavor shapes who you are as a person. It’s not just the reward that does this, it’s your inevitable battles with inner and outer resistance as you approach the destination. You don’t just get the novel started, you become a writer. You don’t just get your house in order, you get your house in order.

• A quest has caves to traverse and rivers to cross. During the eight weeks of One Big Win, you’ll inevitably hit unexpected snags. A bridge you counted on will be out. Something will be trickier than you expected. Other obligations will compete for your time. To the goal mentality, these snags seem like impediments and problems, but to the quest mentality, they’re the features that make it a quest in the first place.

• A quest has a dragon to slay (and it’s inside you). A quest wouldn’t be a quest without the hero at some point facing a terrifying beast that seems impossible to beat at first. From a distance, the dragon seems unconquerable, yet the hero finds a way. In epic fantasy tales, the dragon is always symbolic — the hero defeats it by overcoming some inner sense of limitation, which they had believed was an intrinsic flaw. In any worthy quest, a dragon will eventually show up, and that’s a good thing.

• A quest involves a map, some trusty equipment, and fellow travelers. OBW’s lessons provide a trail map and survival guide. The Block Method is your lucky walking stick, your magic wand, the sword at your side. Whatever you meet on the path, you can depend on the Method to help you deal with it and carry on to the next thing. Fellow OBW students, and I, are available should you need directions or inspiration.

• A quest can change the world. Everything great ever created by humans required someone to overcome an internal obstacle. Your project may be humble, but the transformation it requires of you isn’t. It will bring more capability into the world as a whole.

This way of thinking about goals is what I call the quest mentality. You’re doing something profound and transformative. Your challenges will be as much psychological as practical. The quest mentality will help you remember.