I’ve been thinking about something that’s been eating at me lately, and I bet it’s been gnawing at you too. You know that feeling when you look at where you are in your business and where you know you should be? That uncomfortable space between your current reality and your potential?
Most entrepreneurs I talk to call it frustration. However, I call it something different.
I call it the growth gap, and it might be the most powerful force in your business that you’re completely ignoring.
The Revelation That Changed Everything
Let me take you back to 2015 when I was still figuring out what Intentionally Inspirational was going to become. I had this vision of helping entrepreneurs break free from the rat race, but I was still partially stuck in it myself. I’d quit corporate America twice, yet I was still playing it safe, still holding back from the big moves that scared me.
I remember sitting in my home office, staring at a business plan that looked good on paper but felt hollow in my gut. Everything I’d written down was achievable, comfortable, predictable. And that’s exactly what was wrong with it.
The growth gap isn’t the distance between where you are and where you want to be. Instead, it’s the distance between where you are and where you’re capable of being. Furthermore, here’s the kicker: most of us are unconsciously designing our goals to avoid this gap instead of embracing it.
The Comfort Zone Conspiracy
Here’s what I’ve learned after working with hundreds of real estate investors, coaches, consultants, and agency owners: we’re all participating in a massive conspiracy against our own potential. Consequently, we set goals that stretch us just enough to feel like we’re growing, but not enough to genuinely terrify us.
Think about your biggest goal for this year. Now be honest with me, and more importantly, with yourself. Does achieving that goal require you to become a fundamentally different person than you are today? Additionally, does it demand that you develop skills you’ve never had, have conversations you’ve never been comfortable with, or take risks that make your palms sweat?
If the answer is no, then you’re not thinking big enough.
The entrepreneurs who experience exponential growth, the ones who seem to come out of nowhere and suddenly dominate their markets, they’re not necessarily smarter or more talented than you. Rather, they’re just willing to live in the growth gap longer than everyone else.
Where Most People Get It Wrong
Most business advice tells you to set SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound. However, that last one, “achievable,” is where we get derailed. Because achievable based on what? Consider your current skills. What about your current network? Or perhaps your current mindset?
Had Henry Ford set achievable goals based on his current reality, we’d still be riding horses.
Similarly, if the Wright brothers had focused on achievable, we’d still be taking boats everywhere.
Moreover, if every entrepreneur who ever built something meaningful had stayed within the bounds of “achievable,” we’d still be living in caves.
Ultimately, the growth gap demands that you set goals that are currently impossible for the person you are today, but entirely possible for the person you’re capable of becoming.
The Three Levels of Business Thinking
After nearly a decade of building Intentionally Inspirational and working with entrepreneurs across every industry imaginable, I’ve identified three distinct levels of business thinking:
Level 1: Survival Thinking
This is where you’re focused on making enough to pay the bills, keeping your head above water, and hoping things don’t get worse. Consequently, your goals are defensive: protect what you have, minimize risk, avoid failure.
Level 2: Comfort Thinking
This is where most successful entrepreneurs get stuck. You’re making good money, things are stable, and you’ve created a comfortable lifestyle. Therefore, your goals are incremental: 10% growth, modest expansion, playing it safe.
Level 3: Legacy Thinking
This is where the magic happens. You’re not just building a business; instead, you’re building something that will outlast you. As a result, your goals aren’t about what you need, they’re about what’s possible. This is growth gap territory.
Unfortunately, the problem is, most people skip from Level 1 directly to Level 2 and then park there for the rest of their careers. Consequently, they never experience the exponential growth that comes from embracing Level 3 thinking.
The Fear That Fuels Everything
Here’s what nobody tells you about the growth gap: it’s supposed to be terrifying. That fear you feel when you think about your biggest dreams? That’s not a warning sign that you’re reaching too high. Instead, that’s confirmation you’re finally reaching high enough.
I remember when I first started talking about building a marketing company that would serve entrepreneurs nationwide. People thought I was crazy. Hell, I thought I was crazy. I was a guy with a landscaping background who’d failed at corporate America twice. Who was I to help other business owners grow?
However, that fear, that imposter syndrome, that voice that said “you’re not qualified for this”, that wasn’t holding me back. Rather, that was the growth gap calling.
The most successful entrepreneurs I know have learned to use fear as a compass. When something scares them, they don’t run away from it. Instead, they run toward it. Because they understand that on the other side of that fear is the version of themselves they’re meant to become.
How to Navigate Your Growth Gap
Living in the growth gap isn’t about being reckless or unrealistic. Instead, it’s about being intentionally uncomfortable in service of your potential. Here’s how to do it:
Identify Your True Capacity
Stop setting goals based on your current circumstances and start setting them based on your actual capacity. If you could overcome every fear, learn any skill, and connect with any person, what would you build?
Embrace the Learning Curve
The growth gap requires you to become comfortable being uncomfortable. Initially, you’re going to suck at things. Additionally, you’re going to make mistakes. Furthermore, you’re going to feel like a fraud sometimes. However, that’s not failure, that’s growth.
Find Your Growth Gap Community
Surround yourself with people who are also living in their growth gaps. Unfortunately, the people operating at your current level will try to talk you out of your biggest dreams. Conversely, the people operating at your desired level will help you figure out how to get there.
Take Daily Gap-Closing Action
Every single day, do something that moves you closer to the person capable of achieving your impossible goals. For instance, read something that challenges your thinking. Additionally, have a conversation that makes you nervous. Finally, take an action that feels too big for your current skillset.
The Backwards Route to Forward Progress
Here’s where my philosophy of the backwards route to forward progress really comes into play. Sometimes the fastest way to close your growth gap is to go backwards: to unlearn the limiting beliefs, to question the assumptions, to challenge the programming that keeps you thinking small.
Perhaps you need to go backwards and remember what it felt like to dream without limitations before the world taught you to be “realistic.” Alternatively, maybe you need to go backwards and reconnect with the version of yourself that took risks before you had something to lose.
Ultimately, the growth gap isn’t something to be feared or avoided. Instead, it’s something to be embraced, explored, and leveraged for everything it’s worth.
Your Growth Gap Awaits
So here’s my challenge to you: Stop trying to close the gap between where you are and where you think you should be. Rather, start trying to close the gap between where you are and where you’re truly capable of being.
The entrepreneurs who will dominate the next decade aren’t the ones playing it safe. Instead, they’re the ones brave enough to live in the growth gap, to build businesses that scare them, and to become the people their biggest dreams require them to be.
Your growth gap is calling. The question is: are you ready to answer?
Did you enjoy this? Here are three ways to go deeper:
🎙 Listen to the Intentional AI Daily Podcast — 3 to 5 minute daily episodes on practical AI for entrepreneurs. Listen here.
📋 Grab the Intentional Growth Framework — A free resource that helps you identify exactly where your marketing and automation have room to improve. Get it here.
📅 Book a Discovery Call — Ready to talk through what this looks like in your business? Grab a time here.