Goals

• Mix and match the best parts of the different scenarios for your future
• Start prototyping and validating different ideas out in the real world
• Create immediate and targeted change

Introduction

A goal without a plan is just a wish.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (autor of "The Little Prince")

I like this quote, but I have to disagree. In most people's definitions, a plan resides in the realm of theories, the abstract, and only exists in our mind. Let's say I plan on taking action. But imagine my brain suddenly decides it's had enough of my bullshit and quits its job. My plan might as well not have existed in the first place. In this regard, it was still nothing more than wishful thinking (the last I'd ever do in that scenario).

A goal without concrete actions is just a wish.
- Me (author of absolutely nothing)

In my opinion, if you don't have a sufficiently detailed plan and haven't already done something about it (out in the real world, merely thinking doesn't count), what you are trying to achieve is not a goal, it's just a wish. But honestly, I don't give a damn about definitions for the sake of being pedantic. What really matters here, is that a more strict view of what constitutes a goal will force us to be honest with ourselves. Your goal is to become the next Steve Jobs? Sounds cool, so tell me what you've actually done to get there. Oh, you haven't? But you're going to start next month? Well, I certainly wish you good luck...

And I'm not just being cynical because I think it's fun, but because it's important to get that message across before we continue. Fancy wishful thinking - no matter how detailed, colorful and impressive your plans are - means nothing as long as you don't take action.

Step 1: Break it to improve it

So let's take action by crushing your hopes and dreams! Trust me, they need to die.

Jokes aside, in last week's post I gave you some homework. Based on the wonderous paths that unfolded in your plans A, B, etc., I asked you to talk to experts. The best expert would of course be you, once you tried all those things. Since that jerk is busy not existing yet, we'll have to make do with the next best thing: People that are already living similar lives.

The goal is to have them stomp all over your dreams, tell you all the reasons why something is not going to work out the way you thought it would, and give you hints as to what you should do instead, and how you might approach it differently.

Let's say your plan B was to produce a digital product like a personal finance course. You know a lot about that topic already, and you want to help others, so it seemed like a good idea. The plan was to take a few months to come up with a unique angle on the whole topic, do the necessary research, learn a few things about presentation skills (since you'll probably need to make videos), and once you're ready to sit down and produce the course. While that isn't a bad plan per se, it is. It's real bad. Even if you were to produce the best possible course on that topic, nobody knows you. Nobody knows you have credibility. A few people might stumble across it, and if the quality is high, they might even recommend it to others. But the quality is unlikely to be something to brag about since you had no previous experience in creating such a course. Plus, someone that has already tried (potentially failed and tried again) to produce a similar course will probably tell you that you would have been better off starting small, offering some helpful tips for free, building a community of people that are interested in the same topic, learn from them, understand what they need, and then use all of that knowledge (in addition to proper research of course) to produce something that is even higher quality, offers much more value, and you got the marketing for free.

So once again, make sure you've discussed your ideas with people that are further along the path than you. Reach out to them via Twitter, Reddit, etc. Most people are much more willing to provide useful feedback than you would think! And if that's now working, do some research and understand how others were able to achieve the things you want for your own life.

Step 2: Like a kid in a candy store

Now that your hopes and dreams are somewhat grounded in reality and survived their first contact with the real world, it's time to pick your favorites among the ones that remained.

Let's imagine this was the outcome of last weeks odyssey plan exercise:

• Plan A: finish law school, work as a lawyer and ultimately become a partner in a big law firm, move to Australia
• Plan B: quit law school, pick up programming again, create startup for AI classification of legal contracts
• Plan C: Move back home and work in your families gardening business
• Plan D (unlimited resources): Move to Bali, give free legal advice to locals, own a bar

After talking to some experts you found out that if you wanted to move to Australia, you'd need to start preparing asap, as it's not that easy to get a visa. Creating an AI startup on your own is likely going to fail, but you found some people that are about to try the same thing, and they'd need your knowledge when it comes to interpreting legalese. And after a long heart-to-heart with a sibling that will likely take over the family's business in the future, you're not so sure living in the suburbs is going to do it for you, but it might... So you made some slight alterations to your plans.

Pick parts of any scenario that you resonate with the most. When in doubt, ask yourself: Am I excited about working toward this right away?

At some point, you will have to choose. You either finish or quit law school. And you certainly can't move to Bali, Australia, and your hometown all at once. Unless you grew up in an Australian city called Bali that no ones ever heard of... But for now, let's keep any enticing options alive and continue with the next step.

Step 3: Start at the end

The last timeline consisted of 5 columns, one for every year. And while the next timeline also covers (at least) 5 years, it consists of 11 columns.

As stated before, a goal without concrete actions is utterly pointless. That's why in this timeline, more than half of it is dedicated to what you will do within the next year, and a quarter is just the next three months. This is inspired by a typical, run-of-the-mill product backlog, where the top items are super detailed and ready to be worked on, while stuff that will come up further down the line is mostly just a rough outline of what could be achieved. On the one hand, this helps you to focus on what's actionable at the moment, and on the other hand, it acknowledges that plans might and probably will change, so don't waste time on details you might not even care about in the end.

Now put all big events, goals, and milestones on that timeline. It's ok if some of them are mutually exclusive. Indicate these with a "?" at the end. It's easiest to start at the end, outlining how things shall be in 5 years, and work your way down from that. So to have built my own product 5 years from now, what needs to be done in 4 years? And to do that, which steps do I need to take in 3? And so on... Feel free to use visual aids such as arrow symbols to indicate chains of events that are built on top of each other.

Step 4: End at the start

Ok, so about a year from now, you have a bunch of different possibilities. We want to focus on these questions while drafting a more detailed plan for the next months to a year:

• What do you need to do now, so you can eventually choose between the numerous possibilities?
• Which small-scale experiments could you start? Want to move to a different location? Spend a few weeks there to get a feel for it.
• Which people do you need to get in touch with? The feasibility of some plans is not easily assessed, especially if you still need to flesh out some details.
• Can you break it down into some sort of prototype? Thinking about getting into fitness, but you're not sure if it's your thing? Dedicate 15 minutes a day to do a quick workout at home, and see where that takes you.
• What needs to be done to achieve your desired state in about a year? Break it down into actionable tasks that will get you there, step by step. The idea is to do the planning up front, and then just to execute, especially for everything that needs to be done in the next three months.

Epilogue: Should you ever update this plan?

Short answer: Yes, whenever you feel like you need more clarity.

Long answer:

The way this timeline is laid out, I recommend revisiting it every three months. For the following reasons:

• You will have run out of small pre-planned tasks at this point. Perfect time to take a look at what's next, see what worked and what didn't, and hash out the details you need for the next three months.
• It's a long enough time to have made noticeable progress towards your goals. And if not, then that's a sign you chose suboptimal, unimpactful actions, encountered some unexpected obstacles, or have created an unrealistic timeline. All of that is fine, as long as you adapt your plans accordingly. Don't beat yourself up, but pat yourself on the back for trying, and do better next time.
• By not updating it every other day, your mind is set on what's going to make a difference in the end: Getting shit done. I don't want you planning like a mastermind, only to realize you didn't find the time to do any of those tasks. And then wasting that precious time and brainpower to postpone deadlines and update your plans, when you could actually be making progress instead! Less talk, more action.

With that in mind: stop reading, create your plan for the next 5 years right now, and get started on an action today!

See you next week!