Those goals don't seem all that different from one another to many people, but they are. In fact, there are galaxies of difference between the two goals. One says that success is being top 10. While a good thing to be, you are still not a finisher. The other says that first you will be a FINISHER (your original goal) and second, that you will exceed that by crushing the event and ending up finishing AND being in the top 10% .
In many events, or in school, being top ten is good...really good and will probably get you into the college you want to go to or win an age group medal. In other events, being top 10 may not get you anything at all, except failure. Selection is an example but other examples may include the Olympic Trials, BUDs, SFAS, The CrossFit Regionals, The Regional wrestling tournament. Each of these things requires you to be top 3 or to graduate, to move on. You could accomplish your goal of setting a world record, but if you finish 4th place…you don’t get to go to the Olympics. Maybe all 4 of you set a world record, but you will not go to the big show, your original goal.
Be careful how you set your goals. First set goals to absolutely reach the original mission plan- Go to the Olympics, Graduate BUDs, Finish Selection, Make it to the CrossFit Games. Set a second goal to exceed that first goal- Go to the Olympics and earn a gold medal in the trials and set a new world record in my event, Graduate BUDs and become a SEAL, Make it to the CrossFit Games and win my Region, Finish Selection and be top 10% of the finishers.
Visualization is powerful and if you are not already using it in your training and daily life, I encourage you to research it and use visualization techniques to reach your goals in fitness, business or life in general. If you need a source, try www.SealFit.com.
Just be careful where you set your goals because you will probably achieve them and it may not be what you originally wanted.
So many people experience failure but never realize that they are only doing so because they are setting goals improperly…just like I did. Be specific, be exact and make sure that those goals match the end result that you want.