[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/get-more\/goals\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/get-more\/goals\/","headline":"Goals","name":"Goals","description":"Do you have any? If you don’t know where you’re […]","datePublished":"2023-06-26","dateModified":"2023-03-01","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/author\/algorithmlife\/#Person","name":"algorithmlife","url":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/author\/algorithmlife\/","identifier":1,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7d9ce54bf7884db06c868d4c3d9f401d81cecc940d6403409642a6a34d06caa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7d9ce54bf7884db06c868d4c3d9f401d81cecc940d6403409642a6a34d06caa8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dave Burnett"},"url":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/get-more\/goals\/","about":["Get More"],"wordCount":3035,"articleBody":"Do you have any?If you don’t know where you’re going, I’m pretty sure you won’t get there.We get what we must.How far you’ve come vs how far you have to goWhere you set your goals, is where you choose your suffering.Look farther ahead, you’ll lose focus on the obstacles when you focus on your goalWho are you looking up to?\u00a0 What are you looking forward to?\u00a0 And who are you chasing?5 meter, 100 meter, 1000 meter targetsHave an accountability partner.It’s not about the goal.\u00a0 It’s who you have to become to achieve that goal.There’s an interesting thing about goals you have to bear in mind that nobody talks about:\u00a0 Wherever you set your goal, you also potentially set your misery. Goals by their very nature are hard to reach.\u00a0 It’s not an easy thing to become successful.\u00a0 It’s not an easy thing to practice something every day for years, waiting for some future result.\u00a0 It’s not an easy thing to set a lifelong target of wealth, and yet have no money today. Success, wealth, happiness.\u00a0 These things don’t arrive overnight.\u00a0 So by setting your goals, you by default will know that you haven’t reached them yet.\u00a0 If you measure your progress, you will know you’re not there yet.\u00a0 If you plateau, you will know you are not moving forward, and your focus will be on the fact you do not have it yet.\u00a0 And that’s hard.\u00a0 Hard to look yourself in the mirror every day knowing you’re not there yet and keep going.\u00a0 This can be a miserable experience. That also goes against the very thing you’re trying achieve.\u00a0 The journey to joy, or wealth, or freedom, should not be a miserable one. So what’s the key?\u00a0 You need to measure two things.\u00a0 You must know how far away from your goal you are, but also, even more importantly, you must measure how far you’ve come from where you started.\u00a0 You need to document your starting point, so you can know in your heart that the steps you are taking are not only taking you down the path towards your goal, but are putting distance between the you of today, and who you were when you started. If you can measure the progress from where you started, you can know in your heart that you are going to get to your goal one day.\u00a0 Looking back, is just as important as looking forward for goals. Goals can be hard to achieve, but what happens if you don’t set goals?\u00a0 It is so easy in life to make a decision when you’re 20, just out of college, that impacts you for the rest of your life.\u00a0 You get a job, and follow a path, and that path has a certain level of income, a certain expectation of status, and a certain expectation for life experience. All of a sudden, you can wake up when your 45 and wonder what happened to the last 25 years of my life?\u00a0 Where did they go?\u00a0 You just coasted along on the path someone else designed, and here you are.\u00a0 Right where they expected you to be.\u00a0 But are you where you want to be? Now the good news is it’s never to late to change, and to set new goals.\u00a0 Or if you’ve never done it, set goals for yourself for the first time.\u00a0 I originally had a problem with the word goal, because that symbolizes some finality.\u00a0 You’ve reached something and stopped.\u00a0 So if you prefer, you can call it a milestone.\u00a0 Something you reach, but you know there’s another one ahead.\u00a0 Because life is a long road with many milestones along it and the more you learn, the more you may want to follow a different path. Whatever you call them, you have to set them.\u00a0 You have to take a moment, take the time and set the goals for yourself.\u00a0 Set those milestones.\u00a0 Set the direction you want to go in because if you don’t do it, someone else will. So how do you set the goals you want to achieve?\u00a0 It’s simple.\u00a0 Dream a little.\u00a0 Think about the possibilities for your future.\u00a0 Talk to your parents, your spouse, your kids or your friends.\u00a0 Think about what you want, what you want to be known for, and something you want to be remembered for.\u00a0 Think bigger than you ever thought possible.\u00a0 Something that is outrageous, outlandish, and crazy.\u00a0 These are YOUR goals, and nobody can tell you what you can or can’t do with your dreams. One of the greatest challenges I had in my life was setting goals that were too small.\u00a0 I achieved them all by the time I was 35.\u00a0 So what do you do then?\u00a0 I had limited my own self by setting small goals.\u00a0 So it took me years, but I finally realized my goals should be huge.\u00a0 Life changing.\u00a0 Not only for myself, but for those around me. So my first goal, and purpose, is to enrich the lives of those around me.\u00a0 That is a worthy purpose, and these thoughts are milestones on that path.\u00a0 Another goal is to make 100 billion dollars, and another is to own the island of Lanai in the state of Hawaii.\u00a0 Those are just a couple of huge things I want, and I’m nowhere near them yet.\u00a0 But I’ve come a long way towards them when I look back. Let’s get practical.\u00a0 How do you go about achieving your goals?\u00a0 Here are the exact steps you can take to get you on the path, and keep you on the path to getting everything you want.\u00a0 This is a process I learned from my mentor Warren Rustand. The first thing you do is set your 12. What are your 12?\u00a0 They are your three greatest priorities in the four main areas of life: Personal, Family, Work \/ Business, Community. For personal goals you might want to lose 10 lbs, get your degree, and save $10000 by the end of the year.\u00a0 For family, you might want to have a better relationship with your mother, spend more time with your kids, and keep in touch with your extended family.\u00a0 For work \/ business, you might want to have recurring profit goals for your business, or take the next step in your career and get that promotion, or finish that course to improve your skills.\u00a0 And for community, you might want to get on the board of a local charity, to give back by donating some of your time and help at the local food shelter, or adopt a family for the holidays, and give them something they never had. These are just some examples.\u00a0 Set your own. Now you have your 12 goals.\u00a0 Pause for a moment and envision those goals as being on a long path.\u00a0 You know there are things you have to accomplish on that path that go in a logical sequence, that one thing follows another.\u00a0 Take a moment and write down all the milestones along the way that you would have to hit to achieve that goal. Maybe you have to lose 3 pounds by the end of next month, on your way to losing the 10 lbs.\u00a0 Or you need to schedule in weekly calls to your mother, or you have to book your exam for that course you’re taking, or you have to find a charitable cause you want to donate your time and expertise too. Whatever those steps are, write them down.\u00a0 All of the milestones for each of your 12 priorities.\u00a0 If possible, make them measurable.\u00a0 Call my mother once a week on Wednesdays at 7PM.\u00a0 Save 1000 per month.\u00a0 Finish that course in 3 months.Now depending on how big you are dreaming, you can take another step which is to bucket them into approximate time to completion.\u00a0 Simple buckets like less than a year, between 1 and 3 years, 3 to 5 years, 5 to 10 years, or 10+ years.\u00a0 Write down next to each goal the bucket they are in. What you’ll find as you get older is 10+ years goes by faster than you think.\u00a0 And not only that, people often overestimate what they can achieve in a year, but underestimate what they can accomplish in 10 years. For clarity, you can have more than 3 goals in each area, and as you accomplish different things, you can focus your efforts on those other items on your list you didn’t focus on initially.\u00a0 Odds are there are some short term things you need to fix and get on track before you can start working on those longer term goals you’ve got. Back to the 12 priorities, and all the steps you have to take to make them real.\u00a0 You have your goals with the buckets of time to achieve them by written next to them.\u00a0 Now look at all the milestones and work backwards by writing down due dates that those milestones have to be accomplished by. Using the weight loss goal again, you could say plan all next week’s meals by the end of the day on Sunday each week.\u00a0 Sunday the 12th is the date this must be done by. This gives you something to track.\u00a0 It might be eat smaller meals, more frequently.\u00a0 Or track the calories for each meal.\u00a0 Or work out 3 times a week.\u00a0 Or go for a walk every night.\u00a0 Track it. Take all of them, for each of your priorities, and put a due date next to each and every milestone.\u00a0 Just write down all the dates. Now that you have your 12 priorities, and the milestones to reach those priorities with their due dates, you take them all and re-write them into your calendar on the dates they are due.\u00a0 If you are going to call your mother at 7PM every Wednesday, put it in your schedule.\u00a0 If you’re going to study for 2 hours a night to complete that course, put it in your calendar.\u00a0 If you’re going to spend more time with your kids, put it in your calendar. This is the first step in taking control of your life and making sure you are on the path to achieving your goals.\u00a0 You have defined what your goals are, what the milestones on the path to that goal are, you’ve figured out what you have to do, by when, to hit those milestones, and you’ve scheduled them all into your calendar. This process, and these calendar items, are what is now your core schedule.\u00a0 These are your priorities.\u00a0 Things you must accomplish in your life to achieve everything you want to achieve. Now lets be honest.\u00a0 The first time you do this, you’ll suck at it. Some things you’ll underestimate the amount of time required, and for others, you’ll overestimate the time, and be done sooner.\u00a0 These are both great things, and you have to be forgiving of yourself when this happens.\u00a0 The process is not perfection, the process is about progress.\u00a0 Progress towards the goals you have defined in living the life you want to live.Let me put it to you this way. The first time you got behind the wheel of a car, you sucked.\u00a0 Pretty bad.\u00a0 But now, you’re much better at it.\u00a0 You can listen to the radio or talk on the phone and not even remember your commute.\u00a0 But you got there, safe and sound.\u00a0 It’s the same with this.\u00a0 Over time it will become second nature to you to plan out your life and put your priorities first and before you know it, you’ll reach your destination, whatever that destination might be. The hardest thing for me was actually sticking to the schedule I had set.\u00a0 It’s ridiculous when I write it down. These are my goals, decided by me, that I want to achieve, but I came up with excuses as to why not to do them.\u00a0 I pushed back against my own planning.\u00a0 Really, really dumb.\u00a0 It took me a long time to realize that it was me I was pushing back against, and if I decided I mush achieve those goals, then I must do what I’d scheduled. That’s when I realized we get what we must. That’s an interesting way to think about things.\u00a0 There are a number of related theories, including we can handle any ‘what’, if we have a big enough ‘why’.\u00a0 You know plenty of stories about people enduring amazing trials and challenges, and coming out on the other side victorious against all odds. But some people give up, give in, and don’t go the distance because it’s too hard.\u00a0 Because they don’t have the drive.\u00a0 They didn’t continue because there was some suffering.\u00a0 You can’t blame them for giving up.\u00a0 The motivation wasn’t there.\u00a0 They didn’t have a strong enough desire.\u00a0 It wasn’t a ‘must’ for them. When you put something in your brain that you must do, you will do it.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because your priorities will shift, your focus will sharpen, and you will put every last bit of your energy into accomplishing, or doing that thing.\u00a0 I have seen it up close, and it usually results from some traumatic experience, often around money, that happens when people are young. This forces them to become successful, no matter the cost.\u00a0 It forces them to do what must be done to be successful.\u00a0 It’s a visceral thing.\u00a0 If you must attend college because you want to change your circumstances, you will.\u00a0 If you must provide for your child, and that means working 2 jobs, you will.\u00a0 If you must provide for your family so they never have to experience being poor like you did, you will. People often have challenges in setting their goals because of their upbringing, or their self worth, or not knowing what they want in life.\u00a0 I had this very same problem.\u00a0 I set goals, accomplished them, and then what?\u00a0 I was lost for years not knowing what to do.\u00a0 They were material goals.\u00a0 Getting stuff. That’s when I changed my approach and realized that chasing stuff was the wrong thing to do.\u00a0 I mean you have to have stuff to live.\u00a0 You need an income, a place to live, and the freedom to do what you want without worrying about the next penny.\u00a0 Those are baseline things. But the real key is looking at yourself in the mirror.\u00a0 Taking a long, hard look at who you are and asking yourself one question: Are you living to your fullest potential, or is there some room there for improvement?\u00a0 You should ask yourself this question because when you are setting goals, it should all be in the context of reality.\u00a0 I might want to be President of the United States, but I was born in Canada.\u00a0 Never going to happen.\u00a0 So is that a realistic goal?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 But I do have the potential to be the most me possible.\u00a0 I have innate abilities, and I have learned skills, and I have amazing traits.\u00a0 So do you. So rather than set a goal of having a house, or a car, or a cottage, or a vacation, why not set a goal to be the best version of you possible? The best version of you possible is different for everyone.\u00a0 Another way to phrase this is one’s success should only be measured against one’s own potential.\u00a0 Do you have the potential to be the best artist in the world?\u00a0 What would it take to be that artist?\u00a0 Do you have the potential to be the fastest reader?\u00a0 Or the leading authority on something?\u00a0 The best investor?\u00a0 The best teacher in your school?\u00a0 The best mom?\u00a0 And it’s not even about being the best in the world, the country, or even your house.\u00a0 It’s about being the best you. Now you know I’m big on measurement, so how do you measure this?\u00a0 How do you set goals around becoming the best you?\u00a0 That’s simple.\u00a0 You look at who you want to become, and start learning to become that person.\u00a0 Then, once you have spent some time on yourself, working on yourself, you look back and see how far you’ve come. This all comes back to the one main thing about goals.\u00a0 When you think about it, it’s not about getting the thing.\u00a0 It’s not about owning that car, or that house, or whatever it might be.\u00a0 It’s really all about who you have to become to not only get that thing, but to appreciate having what you have all along the way.\u00a0 Up to and including that thing. The goal of goals is to become more, not to have more. Let’s take money for example.\u00a0 I know plenty of people who are assholes, but are rich.\u00a0 Now you might say that’s not fair.\u00a0 Really, it isn’t.\u00a0 But they may have gotten there by a particular skill, or a gift of being born into the right family.\u00a0 The thing is, all money does is amplify who they are. Now there’s nothing wrong with wanting, or having a lot of money.\u00a0 Some of the greatest people I know are also rich.\u00a0 It’s who you are that matters, because amazing people who are rich do amazing things.\u00a0 Those people who aren’t amazing, still just aren’t amazing. I look at it this way: what type of person would have the things you want to have?\u00a0 Are you that person?\u00a0 What areas of yourself and your life do you have to improve on to become that person.\u00a0 Because once you are that person, you will have the things you want to have. So all you can do is set goals, understand who you have to become to get the things you want, look back at how far you’ve come, not only how far you have to go, and go get it every day with discipline and consistency."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Get More","item":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/get-more\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Goals","item":"https:\/\/algorithmforlife.com\/get-more\/goals\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]