It is often said that the level you ultimately reach is determined by where you first set your sights.
This applies to sports as much as anything else. A player who aims for first place may finish second or third, but someone who only aims for third rarely ends up first or second.

At Hanamaki Higashi High School, Shohei Ohtani filled out the school’s well-known goal-setting sheet and wrote down “160 km/h” as his target velocity.
However, on a separate sheet, he wrote a higher number: 163 km/h.

His reasoning was simple and striking.
If he aimed for 160 km/h, he believed there was a real chance he might fall short and stop around 158.
To truly reach 160, he needed to aim beyond it and train for something even higher.

This way of thinking surprised his high school manager, Hiroshi Sasaki.
From his experience, Sasaki knew that when athletes aim for “10,” they often end up at “8.”
The final result frequently settles slightly below the original target.

Later, Sasaki called Ohtani aside and told him, “You can reach 160 km/h. Write 163 km/h as your goal.”
What Sasaki did not know at the time was that Ohtani had already done exactly that—writing the number on another sheet and posting it on the wall of the weight room.

At just fifteen years old, Ohtani already understood a principle that many people never fully grasp:
to reach an extraordinary goal, you must first set an even higher one.

Source

This quote comes from a Japanese book published in Japan and is not currently available in English.

Baseball Chronicle I: Japan Years 2013–2018, p.47