I trust you’ve seen martial artists demonstrate their strength and skill by smashing a stack of bricks, blocks or boards with bare hands.

There is first a moment of intense concentration, with breathing carefully controlled. Then, in a bat of an eye, the hand comes down crashing upon the target with an incredible force, shattering an enormous stack of decidedly flesh-unfriendly objects. How do they do that?

Not surprisingly, the mental preparation has as much to do with it as the physical prowess. During the intense moments before his or her upper extremity comes down on the pile of building material, the practitioner visualizes the desired impact in a slow motion, with one crucial nuance.

You have to see the impact go beyond the immediate obstacle and deliver the blow as if you intended to hit that target. In other words, if you see five bricks in front of you,  you have to strike to smash the sixth brick sitting just below them. Don’t even think about the other five.

Business leaders can learn from martial artists and use this technique to propel their organization forward with dramatic acceleration. Set stretch goals and you will breeze by the conservatively set milestones.

Why plan for conservative growth when you can grow dramatically? Why strive to hit the $2 billion revenue mark when you can reach for $5 billion, define the strategy accordingly and leave the previously intimidating $2 billion mark in the dust?

This is how mankind planted its first step on the moon and this is how you can touch the previously unthinkable frontiers too. 

Just think of the sixth brick.