First things first: I wish you and your families a Happy New Year and all the best for you and your families.
Today's "episode" will be short because I have so much other stuff to do:
- I need to finish the final notes on my strategy assessment for the BDSU
- My yearly planning and organizing of my time is still ongoing and
- I am working on my new website which is partially online
New Year, new goals?
So, what I wanted to share with you today is what you might still be thinking about: Should you have a new year's resolution? Should you set goals at the risk of disappointing yourself?
Before sharing with you how I approach this very controversial topic (probably next week), I will share with you some resources you might want to have a look into.
What I would recommend you is always considering the four main areas in everybody's life:
- Health
- Your journey
- Personal relationships
- Finances
Top-Down Approaches
Anthony Gustin
So, Anthony has a very comprehensive document you may go through if you really want to take your reflection & planning to the next level.
But to be honest with you: This is a person who does not work as we all do. So, as these kinds of experts are really free to do whatever they want, they have a lot more time which they can allocate to such an (exaggerated) exercise.
I do not mean to be disrespectful. But I have bills to pay, bro.
Tony Robbins
I was a big fan of Tony during my university studies. I had heard a lot about him, watched a few videos, and I read the huge almanack of "Money Master the Game". The funny thing is that it was not life-changing because of the content itself, but because I read about Ray Dalio for the first time.
And Ray Dalio's book "Principles" changed my thinking about values & principles for sure. We will come back to that later.
So, to keep it brief: In "Awaken the Giant within", Tony mentioned a beautiful Quote:
“Remember: Success truly is the result of good judgment. Good judgment is the result of experience, and experience is often the result of bad judgment!”
Hence, you need to make judgments - which is another word for decision - often. He summarizes what you need to do:
- Realize that the hardest step in achieving anything is making a true commitment, a true decision
- Make decisions often
- Learn from your decisions
Following up on that framework, he suggests that
“It’s not just the setting of goals that matters, but the quality of life you experience along the way.”
which I agree with 100%.
Therefore, here is the list of things you should do according to him (quoting):
- Write down everything you’d like to improve in your life that’s related to your personal growth.
- Brainstorm for at least 5 minutes, don’t stop writing!
- This includes: things you’d like to learn, skills to master, traits to develop, physical improvements, conquering fears.
- Add a timeline to each of the goals, how long you want to give yourself in years to accomplish it.
- Choose your single most important 1-year goal from this list
- Career / Business / Economic goals
- Write down anything you want for your career or professional life
- How much do you want to earn? What goals do you have for your company? What net worth do you want? When do you want to retire? When do you want to reach financial independence? What do you want to invest in? What do you want to save for?
- Give a timeline to each one again
- Pick your biggest, most important 1yr goal
- Toys / Adventure Goals
- Write down everything you could ever want to have, do, or experience in your life
- What kind of houses? Trips? Cars? Services? Experiences?
- Again give a timeline
- Again, pick your most exciting 1yr goal
- Contribution Goals
- Write down every way you want to contribute and help others
- Give timelines
- Pick your most exciting 1yr goal
You may find this part on pages 259-272 of his book.
Bottom-up approaches
The above mentioned frameworks are the more conventional ways of thinking about the future & where you want to head to.
The next approaches are more related to the person you actually are or want to be and building everything else up on these essential traits.
James Clear
James Clear wrote one of the most successful non-fictional books of 2021: "Atomic Habits".
He writes in that book about his "Systems over Goals" hypothesis, which contains the very real assumption that hitting a goal is not giving you lasting happiness. I will touch on that in the future.
Instead, you should focus on building your ecosystem you live in, on and with. By doing that, you will automatically move towards your life priorities/preferences but it would improve your experienced happiness much more.
Basically, it means that winning a bit everyday is much more fulfilling than hitting a goal. An example: It will give you more happiness to get out every second morning and run compared to running 15 km in one year.
Ray Dalio
As already mentioned before, I am a big fan of him and his idea of "Radical Transparency" or writing down your principles as heuristics for acting in life.
I really, really would like to encourage you to write down what you believe to be a universal truth. As an example:
Pain + Reflection = Progress (chapter 1.7)
And then write down personal truths you believe to be true in life, which are assumptions based on your experiences.
I did two weeks ago, and it really is nice to come back to those truths in times of hesitation or doubt. They will lead you in the right direction.
Conclusion
No matter what you do or did, I believe it is unbelievably important to go through an exercise, at least verbally, in a structured way. You will get a lot of insights into what you would like to improve about yourself instead of your life.
It hurts sometimes, but it also helps to sort out your
emotions for a "fresh" start.