Setting Goals for 2015



I have worked a lot on myself in 2014. I overcame a lot of personal obstacles and ultimately realized I rather have habits that I work on everyday. I want to act and be how I want to be.

It feels that by making a goal you are always chasing them. Instead I am trying to enjoy the process more.

I realize that if I do certain things everyday the end goal will get achieved anyway.

For example, I am trying to lose weight. Saying I want to weigh 180lbs at 8% body fat is a destination. I rather just commit on hitting my macros, going to the gym and doing cardio. The end result might be the same but the shift of focus makes you appreciate the day to day things more.

Then again I am trying to base my life on three ideas.
Self-control
Taking action
Being present

For me these three habits / virtues/ call them whatever are the key to success. From weight loss to business to personal relationships.

I think we all operate slightly different and for me obsessing over my goals never truly worked. I was either disappointed that I never made it or kept forcing myself to reach higher and higher never to enjoy what I did on a day to day basis.

If I am not happy today, why would hitting goal X make me happy tomorrow?

So that will be my approach for 2015. Focus on my three main habits and try to be who I feel I should be on a day basis.

EDIT: Perhaps what always got me was that goal targets always appear random. We say things like increase revenue by 20%. What does that mean? How do I come up with that number?

I have made goals in the past like get 1,000,000 unique visits by Q1, 2M by Q2. But those where always numbers out of my ass. So it could be that I suck at making realistic goals that are difficult but can be accomplished.
 
wiredniko said:
I have worked a lot on myself in 2014. I overcame a lot of personal obstacles and ultimately realized I rather have habits that I work on everyday. I want to act and be how I want to be.

It feels that by making a goal you are always chasing them. Instead I am trying to enjoy the process more.

I realize that if I do certain things everyday the end goal will get achieved anyway.

For example, I am trying to lose weight. Saying I want to weigh 180lbs at 8% body fat is a destination. I rather just commit on hitting my macros, going to the gym and doing cardio. The end result might be the same but the shift of focus makes you appreciate the day to day things more.

Then again I am trying to base my life on three ideas.
Self-control
Taking action
Being present

For me these three habits / virtues/ call them whatever are the key to success. From weight loss to business to personal relationships.

I think we all operate slightly different and for me obsessing over my goals never truly worked. I was either disappointed that I never made it or kept forcing myself to reach higher and higher never to enjoy what I did on a day to day basis.

If I am not happy today, why would hitting goal X make me happy tomorrow?

So that will be my approach for 2015. Focus on my three main habits and try to be who I feel I should be on a day basis.

EDIT: Perhaps what always got me was that goal targets always appear random. We say things like increase revenue by 20%. What does that mean? How do I come up with that number?

I have made goals in the past like get 1,000,000 unique visits by Q1, 2M by Q2. But those where always numbers out of my ass. So it could be that I suck at making realistic goals that are difficult but can be accomplished.
Click to expand...


You are really onto something here. There are a few reasons people fall short of their goals.

1. They make a goal like your 1million visits Q1 example but dont actually plan out what is necessary to accomplish that goal. You need to boil that goal down into daily activities (as you mentioned). How are you going to get those visits? You need to decide how much time needs to be devoted to it each day. If you fail to address these 2 simple points, goal setting is pretty much pointless.

2. They are not really serious about their goals. There is not much you can do if you dont really want it.
 
wiredniko said:
Then again I am trying to base my life on three ideas.
Self-control
Taking action
Being present

For me these three habits / virtues/ call them whatever are the key to success. From weight loss to business to personal relationships.
Click to expand...

I think in a similar way. I basically make a list (write down or just in my head) of the things that will improve all areas of my life.

For example - a few of them are meditation, eating healthy (jucing), fitness, working on business and gaining momentum.

I try to keep things simple. I know if I do these things consistently, things will come together naturally, rather than focusing on goal X. I don't consider myself successful by any means, and I have a long way to go, but I know that once you have the right mindset and you are fit and feel amazing, things start to work out.

One of my most important goals for 2015 is to surround my self with positive people. I recently realized a lot of my "friends" are just a bunch of retards and bring a lot of negitivity into my life which I don't need. Fuck that.
 
Some great insight here. I have such a Type-A personality and see things in a very binary way. Could definitely benefit from your thought process. Thanks for this.


wiredniko said:
I have worked a lot on myself in 2014. I overcame a lot of personal obstacles and ultimately realized I rather have habits that I work on everyday. I want to act and be how I want to be.

It feels that by making a goal you are always chasing them. Instead I am trying to enjoy the process more.

I realize that if I do certain things everyday the end goal will get achieved anyway.

For example, I am trying to lose weight. Saying I want to weigh 180lbs at 8% body fat is a destination. I rather just commit on hitting my macros, going to the gym and doing cardio. The end result might be the same but the shift of focus makes you appreciate the day to day things more.

Then again I am trying to base my life on three ideas.
Self-control
Taking action
Being present

For me these three habits / virtues/ call them whatever are the key to success. From weight loss to business to personal relationships.

I think we all operate slightly different and for me obsessing over my goals never truly worked. I was either disappointed that I never made it or kept forcing myself to reach higher and higher never to enjoy what I did on a day to day basis.

If I am not happy today, why would hitting goal X make me happy tomorrow?

So that will be my approach for 2015. Focus on my three main habits and try to be who I feel I should be on a day basis.

EDIT: Perhaps what always got me was that goal targets always appear random. We say things like increase revenue by 20%. What does that mean? How do I come up with that number?

I have made goals in the past like get 1,000,000 unique visits by Q1, 2M by Q2. But those where always numbers out of my ass. So it could be that I suck at making realistic goals that are difficult but can be accomplished.
Click to expand...
 
wiredniko said:
It feels that by making a goal you are always chasing them. Instead I am trying to enjoy the process more.
Click to expand...

One of the guys on shark tank said, a goal without a plan is just a dream. You have created a nice plan to achieve your goals. Well done.

I no longer set new years resolutions, my thought is if I want it, why wait a few weeks or a few months to change? Do it now. I do have a project that I have been working on that will be finished around the first of the year that I can start marketing, thats exciting.
 
clear said:
One of the guys on shark tank said, a goal without a plan is just a dream. You have created a nice plan to achieve your goals. Well done.

I no longer set new years resolutions, my thought is if I want it, why wait a few weeks or a few months to change? Do it now. I do have a project that I have been working on that will be finished around the first of the year that I can start marketing, thats exciting.
Click to expand...

Exactly. It's like saying you'll do it on monday, or after a friends birthday, or after Christmas - in other words just putting it off.
 
StackCash said:
Some great insight here. I have such a Type-A personality and see things in a very binary way. Could definitely benefit from your thought process. Thanks for this.
Click to expand...

I am not going to label myself as a Type-A but I will say this.

Last fall I was sitting with my wife and kids by a little creek in the woods. The leaves where turning a yellowish red color and the only thing you could hear was the creek and the laughter or my children as they threw rocks in the creek.

I was sitting right next to a small waterfall that had naturally formed.

My wife said "what are you thinking?"

What I was thinking about was how the Facebook algorithm was fucking my business idea. How I should leverage other social media that do not have sophisticated algorithms yet to overcome the view issue I was having. Which one would be the best? My target audience was 16-37 females that where social influencers so my product could spread. Should it be Pinterest? The problem with Pinterest is that people pin but don't truly interact..but maybe that was the wrong assumption...maybe I should test it? What if it was twitter instead and tried to tag influencers saying things like "you inspired this" and hoping one of them would bite? But for twitter I would need to have at least 1000 followers to seem legit so I should buy them then ....then my wife said "what are you thinking?"

You see, here I was in a pretty cool place, everything was perfect yet I am debating about fucking twitter followers for a website that I hated but had "potential".

I knew right there that my life had started to get fucked up.

The funny thing is I don't want money so I can drive an expensive car or have a super awesome house with more bedrooms that I can count. I just want to be financially independent and be able to support my family without being a slave to someone else.

So I slowly started changing things.

And since you where interested about my thought process consider this.

Are you happy?

If you are not why is that? Do you honestly believe that if you had an extra $1M would make you happy?

If you increased your ROI by another 10%?

No.

We are so obsessed with goals that we never stop and enjoy the creek.

I am not saying be content and do shit, watch TV all day.

I am saying, enjoy the process. When you work truly work. When you are in the woods truly be there.

What is that?

It's about being present. How can you be present? For me it's meditating 20 minutes a day and trying to remind myself to stop trying to get somewhere and instead enjoy this exact moment. This exact second.

What about action?

My main problem with all my projects has always been this.

I plan, think about failure points, try to fix those. Develop. Get logos. Spend weeks trying to find the best domain name ever. Weeks and months of work to launch an idea and realize "oh shit, this is not how it works" or even worse "uhm Facebook's algorithm is different now...this whole thing is now upside down".

Perhaps that is not what your problem is. I suspect those that a lot of us get stuck on planning that we never execute. Yes, we have all heard that all before "execute" or "grind". Really though. How much time do you spend researching? Trying to find the perfect solution to a problem?

In reality the solution is rather simple. Start, then as you go you will encounter issuers, issues that no matter how much you plan you would have not thought about...then overcome the issues or pivot. That's it.

Take action. Every time I want to plan I say to myself, nope, "take action".

Taking action has another boon as well. When you research you will find so much information and counter-information that in the end you will be totally confused.

Let's take it back to dieting. Try research the best diet to follow. Is it paleo? Counting calories? Atkins? Just eat healthy? What is healthy? Fish oil is good for your brain and fights cancer...oh but it also causes prostate cancer. Cereal is good for you...oh but it has a lot of sugar and grains...and oh my god carb belly. Carbs are bad! But you need carbs to fuel your muscles bro! It's never ending.

How about you just start eating right and exercising. Eating right = not eating shit everyday, we all know what they are, soda, candy, deserts, three helpings of shit, fast food. Start from there...then things will fall into place.

Finally we have self-control. Initially I was focusing on self-discipline but I realize self-control vibes with me better.

What is self-control? It's doing what needs to be done. What you would want to do under the right circumstances.

Back to dieting. Let's say you want to workout 4 times a week but you don't feel like it...that's when self-control comes in. You just do it.

You want an awesome self-control trick. Next time you don't feel like working on something that you committed on doing spend 5 minutes on it. Don't want to go to the gym, fine drive to the gym and swipe in, then you can go back out.

You won't. Sometimes our brains fuck us up. Try this as an experiment buy 10 of your favorite candy. Put 5 in a cabinet in the kitchen that you almost never open. The other 5 put them on your desk that you work on.

See which ones you finish first. Don't be surprised if you never touch the ones in the cabinet even if you where in the kitchen hungry. You know why? Because our brain is like...shit I got to open that cabinet...nah.

Self-control is a beast. You have to keep working on it. Being present helps with that.

Being present also helps with taking action. Specifically taking actual action instead of pretending you are working while opening up Facebook for the 100th times today.
 
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And since I am at it

Here is what has helped me grow more than anything else.

1. Have a gratitude list, 3 things you write down you are grateful for every morning and night. It can be personal stuff like "I am thankful I am smart" or it can be about other people "I am thankful that my girlfriend made amazing chicken tonight".
2. Every week do a 20/80 time and emotional analysis. Where do you spend 20% of your time that give you 80% of the results? What causes 80% of your negative emotions?

Based on your 20/80 analysis create a Do and Do Not Do list. Update it weekly. Keep reading it. Figure out how can you stop your Do Not Do habits?

Personal example I know that I wasted hours on WF lurking, Facebook and playing online chess. I did something simple I told myself I can check Facebook and WF twice a day and play 5 chess games. Wrote that down and scheduled it.

Boom, time got created out of nothing and I didn't really lose anything in the process.

Then I noticed that every time I got an email my gmail plugin would kick in letting me know I have email. What would I do? Multi-task. Stop what I was working on to check my email about some affiliate offer that has expired or some quora bullshit email...who the fuck cares? I removed the plugin now I only check gmail when I want to read my email, twice a day.

3. Fear analysis. Here is where everything comes together. You know your todo list that you have items you keep pushing forward for weeks on end. Why are you not doing them? Some of them are just bullshit todos, delete them. The others, the important shit that you have been avoiding why are you avoiding them? That's fear analysis.

I also use that as an opportunity to figure out why am I not following my Do and Not Do list.

Another real example, I had to decide on insurance. Kept pushing it. Fear analysis kicked in for the week and I asked myself, it's insurance, you have three options why are you procrastinating?

I had to face myself and write down, "I am afraid that I might chose the wrong insurance because I do not know enough about health insurance". Great, now I knew what the problem was.

I found one of the guys that literary runs spreadsheets for his health insurance to figure out the most optimum one based on his costs. I asked him, he asked me a few questions and said I recommend this one for X, Y and Z reasons for you.

Five minutes later I had signed up for my insurance.

That's fear analysis. It's being honest with yourself with no other bullshit to distract you.

4. Your todos.

Here is my process:
=== Time Management Plan ===
ToDo List Reset - What are 3-5 things that make you the most anxious / uncomfortable?
ToDo decision: If there is one thing I accomplished today, would I be satisfied with my day?
Will doing this today forward make all other to-dos unimportant or easier to knock off later
Take the ones you answered yes, choose one
ToDo decided is a MUST-DO
Total focus during your chunks

Monthly -> Weekly goals
Work/break: 50/10

The best way to maintain a habit is to expect yourself to not follow it all the time. 1 new habit at a time

EFFECTIVE > EFFICIENT
80/20 emotions/time analysis. Create a do and not to do list based on it
Success can be measured by how you feel when you go to bed or when you wake up.
Expect 60% goal achievement. Aim for 100%, be happy with 60%

==================

That's it.

It's simple and bare bones.

I have the tendency to compile shit upon shit.

My processes become so complex they basically become prohibitive.

So I always try to cut, cut, cut.

I will leave you with this...this is how my day plan used to look:
START OF DAY ROUTINE
Wake up time:
Total sleep hrs:
Weight:
Multivitamin Taken:
Visualize achievement of goals:

REMEMBER
*Be decisive. Look at it once, make a decision, done
*Done is better than perfect
*Stop and reflect periodically
*Let nothing distract you, concentrate on your current task
*Everything is a J-curve, stick to habits in blind faith and don’t focus on chasing outcomes
*If you can’t trust yourself to stick to one area then you can’t trust yourself to stick to the next area….if that’s the case there is no point in even starting anything
*20% creates 80% of the results
*Be content by being present, self-aware, mindful and not too attached to outcomes
*It’s nice and calm under the ocean, the waves only happen on the surface
*Have inner determination and drive for absolute success while being told that you can’t do it
*Struggles are a very cheap but totally necessary learning experience
*Take ownership of what you are doing and be proud of it. You don’t have to love it
*Your personality is not going to change...it’s your character that defines you and you can totally make adjustments. Don’t be so afraid of the world. What’s the worst that will happen? Someone will not approve?

Daily Top 3
a
a
a

Other ToDos
a

Schedule
06:00 Wake up + Meal 1
07:00 Goal
08:00 Goal
09:00 Work
10:00 Work
11:00 Meal 2
12:00 Work
01:00 Work
02:00 Work
03:00 Meal 3 + Work
04:00 Family Time
05:00 Family Time
06:00 Meal 4 + Family Time
07:00 Family Time + Pre meal
08:00 Gym
09:00 Gym + Intra meal
10:00 Post meal + Get ready for bed + Journal
11:00 You better be sleeping

TIME TRACKING


BREAK


CHALLENGES
Did I start the day working instead of wasting time?
Did I criticize, condemn or complain without figuring out a solution?
Did I focus on habits over outcomes?
Did I watch porn?

HEALTH
Calories:
Macros: F/C/P:
Did I avoid sugary foods?
Cardio:
Workout:

CONNECT WITH PEOPLE
Say Hello to a stranger:

END OF DAY ROUTINE
Outcomes Accomplished (X out of Y)
Plan tomorrow:
Prepare food for tomorrow + macros
Floss:

JOURNAL

Gratitude


What part of the process did you enjoy today?


What did you do right to move me closer to my goals?


What could I do differently?


==========================

Here is how it looks right now:

Top ToDo: (I just take the one I believe is the most effective or would have the biggest impact from the brainstorm)
-

ToDo Brainstorm:
-
-
-
-
-
-

Gratitude List
1.
2.
3.

Journal (win/learn...what did I do well...what did I fuck up and I can learn from. I no longer think about win/lose, it's always win/learn)

================
 
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wiredniko said:
I know why.

Write your rules down in an index card. Write them, don't type them.

Put it in your wallet on top of your credit card.
Click to expand...

Good idea.

I'll do just that. My short term memory is shit anyway, so it should help me a lot.

Cheers bro

Edit - need to read that other post you made, good shit. I would rep but don't know how?
 
Cheers OP. Never written down any goals before, always sort of had em in my head which since my memory is shit, doesn't work too well. Going to fill this out today.
 
wiredniko pretty much summed it up, but, FUCKING MEDITATE MOTHERFUCKERS.

Twenty minutes, daily. After a month you won't be able to imagine not meditating every day.

Don't make it a resolution. Just fucking do it. Bitch.
 
-Matt- said:
wiredniko pretty much summed it up, but, FUCKING MEDITATE MOTHERFUCKERS.

Twenty minutes, daily. After a month you won't be able to imagine not meditating every day.

Don't make it a resolution. Just fucking do it. Bitch.
Click to expand...

True that, and I'm sure you know why - once you control your mind, you can basically do anything.
 
I actually gave up all goal setting, writing down things I want to achieve, watching motivational videos etc. I gave all that shit up about a year ago, because I finally realized that none of that shit matters.

All of this time spent tracking, keeping lists of goals, etc. is all wasted time that could be spent working. If that works for you then great, but I finally realized that if you need all of those things just to achieve goals in life then something is wrong.

I don't watch or read any motivational materials, I don't keep lists, I don't even really set goals or keep track of achievements.

I just wake up every day and get to work. That's all we're really talking about here right? Making money and losing weight? Get to fucking work.

Is tracking and writing things down making your biceps bigger, or depositing more money into your bank account? Then why are you spending time doing that? Just get to work.

"But I need to track my progress" - Sure you do! Losing weight? Look in the mirror once a week. Making more money? Check your bank account.

"But what do I do after that?" - Get back to work.

I just laid out the only truth for you guys. Anything else is procrastination and wasted time. I realize I'm going to catch shit for this post but it's ok because... get back to work.
 
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