4/3/2017

Goals

The banner picture for this post was taken by yours truly in London in late November 2016. If a sunny day in London can happen, anything can happen!

Last year, I set a few goals for 2016. With the exception of one (create a muse), I achieved them. Plus, the unlisted goal of quitting my job and planning my first solo international trip.

I’m confused about what should be my main focus this year. My goals so far include:

1. Work that provides meaning for myself and the world
2. Full time location independence
3. Travel
4. Financial Independence

These are obviously related goals. I’ve already achieved the travel one, with lots more travel left to plan!

Goal Achievement

For me, the key to goal achievement in the past has been the following:

1) Subgoal Creation

Each goal is broken into smaller, more easily achievable goals typically with shorter time frames. We’ll call them subgoals, minigoals, and microgoals (because that looks a 1000 times  better than subsubsubsubgoals).

2) Deadlines

This works best if there is a punishment or embarrassment associated with missing the deadline. Ideally, positive reinforcement of making the deadline would be the dominant source of motivation.

The main focus of each day are the activities that help reach these goals. This is how I got through medical school and medical training.

My biggest struggle is finding the kind of work that has meaning for myself and for the world. It most likely lies in entrepreneurship —a lifestyle business, not a startup. However, determining the type of business I would like to run has been difficult.

What is meaningful work?

I love new ideas. I love connecting with other people on a psychological and spiritual level. I love sharing my ideas with others in hopes of having a deep exchange that leaves each of us a bit better off than before we started. I love to learn. I love creating new concepts or retooling old ones through my own voice. I love travel. I love controlling my time. I love the idea of controlling my own income. And I want to amass a tribe of people to rap with.

See how it works!

This outline of how I construct goals and subgoals usually just sits in my head, but now I got a blog!!

Goal #1: Meaningful Work by Jan 2018

Entrepreneurship

Subgoal: What kind of business

Minigoal —Blogging on a regular basis (3x a week)

• Deadline- Blog announced on social media: April 15, 2017
• Deadline- (for establishing this routine): end of April 2017
• Deadline– Submit an article for medium.com: end of May 2017

Benefits

1. Platform for promoting business
2. a successful blog can be monetized
3. Platform for expressing my ideas to the world
4. Possibility for meaningful connection with readers
5. Enjoyment of writing, even though it feels more means than end
6. Location independent friendly

Minigoal —Coding?(? = don’t know if I enjoy the process yet or not.)

Microgoal–Programming on a regular basis.

• Deadline: Javascript on IDE/Learn platform daily lesson: April 20
• Deadline:  complete HTML on Learn HTML app: April 17th

Benefits

1. Useful skill for future, given that the Internet is in its relative infancy
2. Location Independent friendly
3. Independence from software programmers when building my business
4. Express creativity by building my own websites or apps

This method also clarifies which goals are more important and appealing to me. Blogging is obviously more detailed and well thought out than coding.

What do you think about this method for yourself?