"Know this: if your goals feel 'realistic,' you are thinking too small." - Futurist Jim Carroll
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Futurist Jim Carroll is writing his end-of-2025 / introduction-to-2026 series, 26 Principles for 2026. You can follow along at 2026.jimcarroll.com. He welcomes your comments.
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We are on Day 9. You've committed to the pivot (Day 7), and you are increasing your execution velocity (Day 8). You are moving faster.
But are you aiming high enough?
In an exponential world, you can’t just think big - you need to think bigger!
And so day 9 is all about aiming higher and achieving the moonshot mentality. Here's your key thought: in 2026 and beyond, the idea of being just 10% better is dead, and being 10x better is critical.
Think about it: in a linear world, success was defined by incrementalism. Growing sales by 5%, cutting costs by 10%, or improving efficiency by 15% year-over-year was considered a victory. You achieved this by working a little harder, squeezing a little more out of things, and making safe, small, "feasible" bets.
Realistic things.
Things you know you could accomplish.
In an exponential world, incrementalism is the path to irrelevance. Small steps won't work. Thinking small is a guarantee for marginal success. While you are striving for 10% growth, an exponential competitor - maybe someone leveraging AI, developing a new business model, or developing new skills - is aiming for 10x growth and will wipe you out before your five-year plan is halfway done.
To survive in 2026, you must stop trying to improve the status quo and start trying to replace it. You need to shift from linear goal-setting to exponential ambition.
Moonshot thinking!
The discipline is Aiming Higher!
As Sly and the Family Stone said - I want to take you higher! To understand the scale of ambition required for 2026, you first need to see where the trends are actually going. You cannot plan for 2030 using 2025 thinking. If you take today's shifts and extrapolate them to their 10x conclusion, the future looks radically different.
So let me take you into my world of "Radical Extrapolation" - I'll take some trends I've covered and take them higher.
I'm Sly.
You're the family.
Let's get high!
Keep reading - go to the full post!
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**#Moonshot** **#Exponential** **#Innovation** **#10x** **#AimHigher** **#Space** **#Capital** **#Commercialization** **#Transformation** **#Breakthrough**
One of the highlights of Jim’s career was the moment he was invited to keynote an event at NASA, with a room full of astronauts, mission directors, rocket engineers, and others, with the focus being on ‘thinking BIG’. The second highlight was when he was invited back for a repeat performance!
Original post: https://jimcarroll.com/2025/12/decoding-tomorrow-mastering-2026-9-know-this-if-your-goals-feel-realistic-you-are-thinking-too-small/
