Holy shit.
Those were the words that came to me.
A slap to the face. A red-cheeked wonder.
In this little private FaceBook group, I’d written about my goals for the future. The things I wanted to do. Films to create. Money to make. That sort of thing.
A short while after hitting the publish button I got that little pocket buzz and then:
Once again … holy shit.
James Altucher is a bit of a hero of mine. He’s one of the many mentors-from-afar that I go to. One of those guys whose had a huge influence on my life, but would never know it.
So when he commented on my post and said to focus on themes rather than goals I had to listen.
He told me that having goals will kill you.
People tend to set their goals too high. They tend to say “I will be a millionaire by the time I’m 25” or “I will climb Everest before my voice breaks” or “I will be the first person to circumnavigate Mars”.
And when they don’t reach their goals, they crumble. Suddenly life doesn’t make sense anymore. How can they be that super successful Bilzerian booby-magnet if they didn’t reach that ridiculous goal? What does this mean? Who are they? What’s the point of trying anymore? Screw it, let’s get shit-faced.
Better yet, to live by themes.
Rather than setting yourself up for failure it seems a much smarter move to live by themes.
You wake up in the morning. Drink coffee. Remember who you are and what themes you’re living by, and then set the goals for the day accordingly. The goals can be small. Just a few simple steps.
e.g. write 100 words, do 5 pushups, e-mail that client.
If you’re consistently moving forwards, you’re likely to reach a few of those bigger goals anyway, but you’ll be much happier along the way too.
Here’s the themes that keep me sane:
1.) Write, Publish, Repeat — to always be working on the next story idea. Be it a book, film, comic, whatever. To consistently create. To make myself the storyteller I want to be.
2.) To become independent of finance and location — by this, I mean to be able to live around the world. To be free of that full-time office job. To be able to spend time on the things that I want to spend it on. As long as I’m moving towards this, I’m happy.
3.) To make Cat happy — that’s the fiancée. Pretty simple. But it’s nice to remind myself.
But small goals aren’t exciting!
Yeah I know what you mean. It’s nice to have those big dreams to keep you moving forward.
And I have those too. I want to publish a trilogy of novels by June next year. I want to Kickstart a comic book series with my publishing company Hawk & Cleaver. But I’m not going to beat myself in the nostrils if I don’t hit those targets. As long as I’m moving towards the goals by living true to my daily themes I know I’ll get there eventually.
Festina lente … or … make haste slowly.
Oh and remember ...
Luke Kondor is a filmmaker and writer. He started writing on his computer in his early teens and never looked back, and now he’s got really sore eyes.
He’s part of the digital story studio — Hawk & Cleaver where he helps to create the best new stories for you to watch, read, sniff, and absorb. Go grab a free book here
Originally published here
I love this message! No goals. I get it. Themes. Yes!
I think that just gave me a year of my life back.
And how cool to be contacted by a hero. I once had a hero send me a friend request on facebook, then we bickered about politics and he was super-apologetic and it was extremely surreal.
I don't usually point out minor grammatical details, but this time I will. The line"KEEP GOING YOU SHITS" will read more clearly as
"KEEP GOING, YOU SHITS." I hope pointing that out is not unwelcome.
Great article.
lol no I don't mind the grammar pointer and you're completely right. The comma should be in there. And thanks :).
Oh good. I guess I can now share that I was interpreting the line as the totally hilarious "If you keep going, you will shit." I know that makes no sense and that it reads even more like that with the comma. Still, glad you were cool with my suggested change. ;D
Reading the comments, I'm really impressed with your take on this topic. It seems you've got a wise, well-rounded, and personal approach. I'll look forward to reading the companion piece!
haha! I guess it's true. You will eventually shit. It's the natural way of things.
Goals provide those who set them with a sense of direction increasing the chance of success.
Yep. I agree. Look out for my sequel - Having Goals Will Save Your Life.
Not necessarily. The goals themselves provide a focus of attention. It's still possible to have goals and take actions toward them that decrease your chance of success.
love the title and the graphic...tshirts next!
lol definitely.
My personal strategy that has served me well is to set small, medium, and large goals... set short, medium and long term goals. Every combination of the above. So there are always goals within reach and being achieved to keep me motivated.
And when I reach a goal I set another.
I don't like goals like "Millionaire by 25" though I'm guilty of that early on (mine was millionaire by 30, billionaire by 40). I achieved the first, the second is far too lofty. If I could change those goals they would have been "Be a self made millionaire" and once that goal was set, "be a self made billionaire" with no timelines.. and probably goal 2 should be for 10M...
anyway, equally important are "goals" that you are already achieving, and simply must continue to do... such as "keep my 3 mile time under 19 minutes" or "stay under X lbs" or "maintain a $X savings balance"...
Yep yep!
I'm going to write a sequel post to this about how setting goals saved my life lol.
But I think the point I was making in this post was to try to get people to relax on those crazy-high goals that make you feel a little worthless when you don't hit them.
Your goal-setting routine looks very similar to how mine :).
Thanks.
I don't have an issue with quasi-impossible goals so long as there is balance with actually achievable and achieved ones to bring balance to it.
On the flip side, if you achieve all your goals easily then the goals may not be lofty enough
Yes! I completely agree. Nowadays I like to set a real lofty theme - tell stories that are loved all over the world - and then make smaller trackable goals that pull me towards that theme.
Regarding you question about how you're going to withdraw cash. It involves 3 steps, 1st you need to transfer you steem dollar to a bitcoin trader such as bittrex, poloniex and blocktrades, 2nd when you already transferred your sbd, trade it for bitcoin on the same platform where you sent your sbd, 3rd after converting your sbd to bitcoin, transfer it to a bitcoin wallet
Thanks for the help. That all seems easy enough, but how does that work in getting those Bitcoins sold and sent to a UK Bank Account?
Most of the bitcoin wallet can convert bitcoin to usd automatically.
what are the things that you like to spend your time on Luke?
I like making stuff :).
I never have goals, as life always seems to move the goal posts - stick to theme! AGREED!