In order to set your company goals, you’ve got to visualize them first.

Could you run 5,280 feet? No? But can you see yourself running four times around a quarter-mile track? If you haven’t done the math, that’d be the exact same distance. So why does the latter sound so much easier? Because it’s easier to achieve visualized goals than those expressed in numbers.

Just like running track, running a business is easier when you swap abstract goals for concrete, exciting visions. “Conceive, believe, and achieve” is a mantra that guided the author as he turned his $2 million annual revenue into $106 million over the course of a mere six years.

This technique of first conceiving or visualizing can apply to any kind of goal. Say you’re a basketball player: instead of telling yourself to score 20 baskets, visualize the act of shooting and scoring instead.

Creating visualizable goals makes us more likely to set realistic expectations for ourselves or for our company. This is vital, because setting abstract goals for our company’s future can do more harm than good.

Let’s return to our runner example to see why.

Imagine setting yourself the goal of running 10km in 30 minutes, even though, normally, you’d need an hour. By aiming straight for that high goal, you’d increase the risk of injury. The same goes for businesses that set very high goals at the outset. After achieving it, they often realize they’ve harmed the business in the process. Companies that expand too quickly often end up making an inferior product.

But let’s say you considered your running goal by first visualizing how you’d work up to 10km in 30 minutes. You’d realize that you have to gradually build your speed from 4.5 minutes/km to 3 minutes/km. That’s a reasonable and achievable goal!

So before setting growth goals for your company, ask yourself first: Can I visualize these goals? If you can, then it’s time to figure out how you’ll achieve them.