Achieving Your Goals
Discover more from Weekend Wisdom - Dan Isaacman
If only setting and achieving goals were something, we could learn in the traditional education system.
Instead, In school, we follow a set of predetermined steps, over some time until we eventually get released into the wild world.
There seems to be little focus on the two most important academic life skills of creating thinking and financial literacy.
Some people quickly realise that all the information you memorised will be instantly lost from consciousness the moment the final bell rings.
Our grades rely on a particular outcome or set of objectives, but we all know that does not reflect life after school. The real world is complicated, and getting a result is not achieved by following a linear set of steps. The real world is convoluted, and many of your questions don't have clear answers that you can find with a quick google search.
If you fail to achieve your goals it's likely because you are applying the old-school mentality to the real world. The two reasons we fail to achieve our goals are;
We are focusing on tasks and not the big picture.
We do not honestly want it badly enough.
How can we fix our goals?
When you look in someone's calendar or if they have a set of goals, there will be a list involved. Don't get me wrong, it is great to be able to tick something off a list, but when it comes to the goals of your life, there is a better way.
What if you could live out your goals before you achieve them?
Imagine if you could live your most spectacular dream right now. Maybe it’s a Million dollars in your bank account, or you finally get your drivers licence.
How would that feel?
Can you imagine the experience?
Can you see it in your mind's eye?
What do you see?
How clear can you shape your dream?
The thing is, we usually want the things we want because of the feeling that they will bring. We say, if this happens then I will feel that.
What if you could feel that feeling right now?
It seems our brains are programmed to expect life to be much the same as last year and the year before that. Our minds normalise this feeling and guess what happens? Your thoughts become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But what if you could train your mind to think differently?
Think about your top 3 goals. They might go something like this:
Have $100,000 in my bank account
Lose 10 Kg
Find a hobby
It is essential to have goals and set goals, but the list above is missing some crucial elements.
There is no emotion linked to your goals. Most of the goals focus on external elements, and there is no clear picture of the outcome.
What if our goals were more like stories? (I See)
Take the above examples. What if we could create a story surrounding the goals that would allow us to experience them before we tick them off our list?
Here, the goals appear in the first person, present moment, embellished in a story. Picture yourself in these situations and expand the detail where possible.
I see myself creating so much value for the people around me that when I go to open your online banking statement, I feel immense joy when I see the large sum of money I have. I embrace the potential of this money and what I can do with it. It brings me joy even though it is just a digital number that represents the value that I have created for others.
I knaow that the exercise and stricter eating I have had to do to lose weight has been a challenge at times, but right now when I am looking in the mirror at the healthier version of myself, I feel a rush of vitality. I could barely get up and down the stair, but now I can run for Kilometres. This change in my health and appearance have me feeling younger than I did in my 20's. The reward is the process of strengthening your body and mind.
I see myself so engrossed in this activity that time stops. I feel no need to eat or sleep as this new activity energises me. I have come so far that people are now asking me for lessons on how to do this hobby and I am becoming a more interesting person who finally has an answer when someone asks" what do you do for fun?"
By attaching your goals to these stories, you start to feel what it would be like to achieve them. See yourself having completed these goals, and let yourself experience the feelings now. You can completely change your identity if you wish, but your painting of the picture needs to be vivid. You will need to visit these places in your mind often and incentivise yourself with feelings of success, even if it feels outlandish.
If it's so easy, why don't we all have everything we want?
The second reason we fail to achieve our goals is that we don't want it enough. That can be a hard pill to swallow, but the only thing standing between you and your goals is you.
Every person that has achieved the things you want are only human. They had no shortcut or superhuman capabilities. They had flaws and probably started from the bottom, with a disadvantage like everybody else.
The truth is that they just wanted it more than you do, and they were willing to commit to doing whatever it took to get at it. Real talent comes to people who persevere where others give up, and as a result, they make it. They are relentless and do not settle for giving it a half-arsed effort. Nine out of ten was not good enough for them and if you want the same thing. It would be best if you bumped up your level of commitment.
Will you accept defeat, or will you keep going when life gets challenging? Your highest goals will push you to your breaking point and then some, to test how much you want it.
If you think about it, you could do whatever you want within reason. You could find a way to make your dreams happen, but it might involve some compromises and risks that subconsciously, you are not willing to take.
It’s Time to Set Your Goals, Create Your Visions, Dream Big, and Go for Gold.
If you want to achieve the goals you set for yourself, make them real, attach them to a compelling story with emotion that you can feel your present self experiencing. Experience the emotions and feelings of that goal as if it were already yours.
If you wanted something, you would do everything in your power to get it done. I'm sure if you cast your mind back, you can think of a time in your life when you made something that seemed impossible at the time a reality.
Some people ask questions like "When should I quit my job and start my own business?" The answer is when you want something enough, you don't ask when or how, you get it done, and do whatever you have to do.