# Setting successful goals Successful [change](people-changes.md) has multiple necessary components: 1. A [VISION](imagination.md) that avoids confusion (which requires the right [attitude](success-2_attitude.md)) 2. An [INCENTIVE](purpose.md) that speeds up change (often with a deadline) 3. ACTION PLANS that prevent dead ends and false starts (which require correct goals) 4. SKILLS that prevent anxiety 5. RESOURCES that prevent frustration By not setting goals, other people and circumstances will set them for you. - Appropriate goals only come through experience setting bad ones. Stay both realistic and ambitious. - Many people imagine bad goals come from poor [time management](success-4_routine.md), but they're usually from poor [stress management](success-5_persevering.md). - You must have currently unmet expectations you *know* you can achieve. ## Start with the results you want Begin by asking questions: - What occupies most of your time? - What do you want to achieve? - What are my obstacles to it? - Who else has done this already? Visualize the tasks you want to achieve: - Visualizing isn't useful for framing your future status, but is critical for understanding specific parts of the goals you want to achieve. - Finding motivation requires that we fully understand our [purpose](purpose.md). - Visualizing creates a sensory connection of experiencing, seeing, and feeling through intense imagination. - Every successful person visualizes their purpose before they've created any results. Whenever possible, try to avoid competing against the masses: - If you're competing against many people, sheer probabilistic chance gives you a disadvantage. - Instead, aim for things that have a much smaller set of people competing for that space. - Preferably, if you're the only one doing something, then you're safe from people trying to imitate you until they catch up. Ask who you want to be in 5 years and list at least 10 attributes of each part: - Your future outlook on life - The routine of your future typical day - Your future job - The things you'll be looking forward to - Your future family - The people in your social circle and your closest friends - Your future physical appearance and fitness - Your future home - How you will manage conflicts and hardships - What you want people to remember you for Ask dumb questions to find obvious problems: - Why do I do (action), and what makes me do it? - What do I dream about or love doing, and what has kept it from happening? - Which skills am I good at, and how can I use them more? - What do other people need, and where do they need it? - Which opportunities can I use to expand my worldview or learn what I want to learn? - What strengths and weaknesses do I have right now? - What opportunities and threats surround me? Practice brutal honesty with yourself to find in-depth problems: - State out loud, "Everything in my life is fine," then pay close attention to any objections you [feel](mind-feelings.md) - If your life is going horribly, *anything* different than what you currently have been doing is a good start. - Write down your top 5 problems in your life, then ask why you haven't done anything about them - Long-held [beliefs](trust.md), prejudices, and assumptions - Communications with others - Mindless routines and habits - Insufficient time, energy, or resources for your goals - "Voids" of wasted time, energy, or resources - Your worst fears Categorize your goals in relation to how far away they are: - You should have assembled enough goals that you can place at least a few into each category. - Short-term goals are things you can technically accomplish right now. - Mid-term goals look out beyond a year, but before 5 years. - Long-term goals span 5-15 years. - As you make the goals, you should be able to feel that your tasks will naturally reflect all three domains at once. Use the R2/A2 formula to draw personal goals from other people and characters: 1. Recognize their principle, technique, or idea. 2. Relate their principle, technique, or idea to your experience. 3. Assimilate the principle, technique, or idea as part of yourself. 4. Action it by doing something to prove you now live by it. When you're done, distill the goals: - Write a "personal leadership code" of 5--10 principles or purposes you wish to live by. - Place those rules somewhere prominently. - Every year, review those rules to be sure they still apply. ## Long-term goals are only somewhat useful It feels nicer to be partly finished with a longer journey than starting a shorter one, but most large goals take at least 5 years to accomplish: - It often takes longer than you think because you're completely incapable of realizing all the challenges along the way. - It's also impossible to stay motivated when things don't work out the way you expected. Long-term planning only helps our pacing and focus: - The most dramatic side effect of long-term planning isn't from the actual plans, but from how we [meditate heavily](awareness-meditation.md) on the goal. - Without long-term plans, we often don't know when to stop or reconsider our actions. - If we don't expect to follow through with a goal, it's better to save the discouragement and not start at all. Expect to fail most of your large goals: - If you aim for 20 BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals), you'll probably only do about 3 of them. Instead of focusing on goals, work on making better systems: - Good systems allow you to build toward ideas and should be flexible to adapt to changes in life. - Goals, on the other hand, can be discouraging if they're not correctly set. - A good system is simple enough to easily provoke you to act, but sophisticated enough to capture your ideas. ## Start small Don't focus on becoming extraordinary: - Extraordinary people did above-average things every day for a long time, which required them to simply push themselves slightly more than they were comfortable each day. - Making small improvements you can stick to over a long time *always* yields more results than a large-scale ambition. - While each person *can* become extraordinary, they started with unremarkable sacrifices. - To *believe* you can achieve something, you must start with something small. - We experience a psychological reward when finishing a task, so start something you can finish quickly. - Aiming for smaller goals has the advantage of building momentum toward larger goals later. - Even skills for [managing a large organization](mgmt-7_changes.md) or [starting a business](entrepreneur-1_why.md) start with remembering to floss every day or do laundry. Create a clear statement or two about what you want: - By clarifying what you want, you free up your mind to focus on getting there. - Jargon and technical terminology separate you from the statement's meaning, so avoid them as much as possible. - Avoid extremes and always/never statements, since they tend to foster mental illness. - Set clear deadlines with a follow-up date to examine your results. Work within the reality set before you and what you'd like to see differently: - Work forward from your opportunities, *not* back from some long-term vision. - Contrary to most success "advice", your goal will change *much* faster than your natural abilities and situation. - If you must think long-term, imagine the future position that will give you the most opportunities, *not* the ones that make you happiest or seem most promising. 1. Clearly define what your problems are. 2. Figure out all the things that would most likely *guarantee* failure. 3. Carefully consider actions you can take to avoid every one of those things. ## Merge all your goals into one system You'll need multiple media and software because you're trying to capture *all* your ambitions and thoughts: - Paper, notebooks, sticky notes - To-do list and note-taking software - Journals - Gantt charts, mind maps, spreadsheets Your system will be highly personalized: - Create a natural flow from your [brainstorming](mind-creativity.md) into results. - Use any medium you feel adds value, and avoid what you don't like. - Constantly look for more ways to slice and capture your information better. - If you want a system that lasts more than a few years and is on a [computer](computers.md), make sure the information is accessible from at least two or three free software programs (e.g., text files, .doc files). ### After capturing all your ideas, simplify them You're not going to easily organize things as they come in: - You can only [organize](organization.md) *after* you know what you want to do. Problems are either simple, complicated, or complex: - Simple problems are relatively straightforward, even if they have many steps (e.g., most [cooking](cooking.md)). - Complicated problems can also be broken down into steps, but there's no straightforward system to easily use for them (e.g., building a rocket). - Complex problems are elaborate, interdependent situations that are difficult to simplify (e.g., [parenting](parenting-babies.md)). Many goals are smaller pieces of larger ones: - Remove unnecessary steps or spin them off into projects. - Group ideas to understand your ambitions. Assemble everything into a plan and then attack it: - After you've made your plan, imagine you've received a vision that the plan is doomed to fail, then ask why it would. - Expect every possible thing that could go wrong, then make plans for those. By the end of your planning, you shouldn't be surprised by almost anything that may fail. ### Divide your large goals into smaller ones Make your smaller, or "actionable", goals as practical and simple as possible: - If the task breaks into multiple days or multiple parts, it needs subdivision. - Vague tasks need more clarification, which may require spelling out *exactly* what to do. - Every task will start with an "action" verb: - Single-step verbs only take a few minutes: - Book, brainstorm, buy, call, copy, discuss, draft, edit, email, fill out, find, gather, load, outline, print, purge, read, record, register, research, review, schedule, verify, wait for, write - Multi-step verbs take hours or days: - Analyze, build, complete, decide, design, ensure, finalize, finish, handle, implement, install, launch, look into, maximize, organize, research, resolve, roll out, set up Every large goal must have at least one task you can finish right now, *today*. If you're stuck, ask what you need: - What do I need to create results? - What skills do I need? - To make it happen, what resources am I missing? - What can I control to manage things currently beyond my control? Estimate how much time each task will take. Divide any task that feels too large to perform right now into smaller tasks. Even if you keep postponing it, give a deadline for every task: - We tend to postpone tasks without deadlines forever. - Without a specific end date, we tend to become perfectionists or lazy. Group your tasks by where you'll perform them or what you'll need: - Use tags, titles, highlights, and categories liberally. ## Plan your days and weeks Schedule time to plan the week or day before it starts. Honor the Three Back-Job Rule: three jobs hide behind most tasks you can see: - For this reason, large-scale success can take up to four times as much work as you'd expect. - After you've made goals you know you must do, *don't* think about anything but the present task. Use the 2-Minute Rule: do anything immediately if it takes 2 minutes or less: - If you don't have time, make a "2 Minute List". Only plan tasks you can visualize doing: - You should be able to finish the task in the specified time. - Add room for comfort and error between tasks. Only plan up to 8 tasks each day: - To avoid wasting time, prioritize the most important tasks at the top. - We can only complete 6--8 tasks on any given day. - List fewer tasks you *know* you'll finish instead of many you may not get to. - If you're done and have time, you can always do something else as a bonus task. Cross off or delete completed tasks as you finish them: - Aim for To-Do List Zero every day, where there is nothing left on your list. - Either reconsider the value of everything you couldn't finish, or move it to the next period's list. Don't get too consumed by technology: - While there are many ways to manage your to-do list, the best solution is often the simplest. - Start with a plain text file or notepad, then work your way up as you need degrees of complexity. - [Technology](technology.md) gives many answers to problems, but the wide variety of options can be *very* time-consuming. - Regardless of what system it is, it'll eventually fail at something. ## Take inspiration from existing systems Your system should be subordinate to getting things actually *done*: - You can use any combination of [existing systems](success-systems.md) to build your ideal goal-setting system. - The system must simplify how you actually *do* things, and shouldn't be any more complex than you need. - This is a [creative process](mind-creativity.md), so the entire system *will* move around as your mind adapts to productivity. ## Boldly say "no" You have a right to firmly and graciously say "no". In fact, saying "no" is the only way to create time in your schedule. Saying "no" is always harder than it sounds: - The word "no" is a boundary you or someone else could dislike. - People with low [emotional intelligence](people-3_respect.md) are usually offended by the word "no". Declining tasks is easy if you know your priorities: - Saying "no" to something is saying "yes" to something else. - Rebuild your goals for new purposes, but never do anything outside them. The alternatives to saying "no" are worse: - Evading people creates false expectations. - Saying "yes" ensures you never have enough time. - Compromising is often a variation of saying "yes". You have many polite ways to say "no": - I have too much on my plate right now./I can't fit anything else into my schedule. - I don't know when I can do it, but I know someone who can help you right now. - I can help you tomorrow, but here are some resources that can help you today. - Please ask me in a week/month/year. - I would, but only if you're okay with me dropping (task) to do it. - Can we talk about this later?/Can you please ask me later? - I wish I could help, but I'm trying to cut back. - I want to help, but I would like to focus on your task without distractions. Say "yes" to what you want by saying "no" more: - Review anything you're instinctively saying "yes" to: - Consider the worst thing that could happen if you don't do a task. - Systematically purge anything irrelevant. - Renegotiate commitments as soon as you realize they've become burdensome. - Move ego-boosting activities that aren't helping you or others: - Attending a club that doesn't challenge you - Church activities that don't grow or help anyone - Sitting on a volunteer board - Pontificating about successes with others - Unproductive tasks you've mastered ## Manage daily time and resources We tend to adapt our work to meet expected deadlines: - Assigning 2 hours may turn a 30-minute task into an hour. - Assigning 20 minutes can make a 30-minute task low-quality or stressful. - Without experience, our subconscious tends to estimate ideal circumstances, so always add 20% more to it. Great time managers live in the middle between lackadaisical and frenzied: - Sharpen your understanding of time by testing specific lengths and deadlines for tasks. - Give extra room in your schedule to think, plan, and fail. - Most people use some tricks to "feel" through their events: - Declare what they want - Keep a productivity journal - Make a story about what happened Energy is usually easier to manage than time because we can feel it. We should measure time and energy because measuring results can be discouraging: - Results are volatile and can usually be delayed. - Most successful people track how well they change their habits. - Some people try to manage work, but our time estimations are usually very inaccurate. "Work/life balance" is the art of separating personal time from work: - It might feel counter-intuitive, but planning for [leisure time](fun.md) gives room to relax and recuperate. - In fact, the world's greatest ideas usually come from people relaxing or doing something unrelated. ## *Don't* talk about your goals Talking about our goals gives us the same chemical satisfaction as accomplishing them: - Since talking is easier than doing anything, talking about them removes the motivation to perform. We can circumvent that release by expressing excitement in the future tense: - "I can't wait to finish my book!" instead of "I'm writing a book right now." - "I'm eager to show my new design." instead of "I'm making a design." - "I want to share my findings." instead of "I've been researching that subject." ## Periodically re-examine your goals Adapt and update your goals to keep yourself accountable: - Revisit them monthly, weekly, or daily, complexity-depending. After you've gained some experience, consider the difference between your strategy and tactics: - Strategy influences long-term effects, so you should consider it carefully. - Tactics, on the other hand, create short-term results that become immediately apparent. Always revisit goals and question methods when you fail: - Make your unfinished goals smaller. - Consider new pathways with your current position. Reconsider your purposes: - On the way, our original passion can completely shift. - We should always ask if our "finish line" is the same. - Align any new short-term goals to existing long-term ones, and vice versa. Ask what you're doing: - What you can do to improve - What you're doing that you shouldn't - What you're not doing that you should - Whether other people are benefiting from your actions - The degree of investment you feel toward your goals and tasks Ask how others see you: - The things you should or ought to be doing - What do other people think about your goals - Whether you're marketing yourself enough - Whether your network is growing well enough - How much you're honoring what you promised Make a personal performance review: - How much skill you have or developed - How much knowledge you've learned - Your ability to handle the burden of your workload - How much you've changed - The quality and quantity of your communications - How fast you respond to others - Your ability to focus by yourself - Your quality of work in a group and delegate responsibility - How you make others feel and respond - Willingness to take on more responsibilities - How consistent and reliable you've been Ask what you have left: - How much you've done - The remaining number or scope of tasks you have left Reflect on any consistent thought patterns: - Natural assumptions you're making - Habits you're slowly developing or losing - The things you spend the most time thinking about and doing Be realistic: - You won't get to do everything you want to do. - Your estimations about your capabilities and others' are usually *way* off. - Whenever possible, avoid bias by measuring with numbers instead of comparisons, or compare yourself to your past self. ## Start performing when you know what to do If goal-setting is causing you trouble, you're doing it wrong: - The entire reason you're setting goals is to create [certainty](understanding-certainty.md) about what you want to do. - The goals can't be so specific that you lose the overall reason you're doing the goals in the first place. - If you have too many goals you'll focus on the easy ones to simply cut down the pile. - If the goals are too short-term, you won't see desirable results beyond a few years' time. - If your goals make you more anxious than excited, you are *not* [pursuing your passion](success-2_attitude.md). Once you know what to do, your best results come from starting into the task, then [optimizing your routine](success-4_routine.md).