Forget All Your Goals
Goals are highly overrated.
Hear me out:
Goals feel good in the moment, and give you that hit of dopamine when you think about them, but aren’t always realistic and sometimes don’t leverage your best skills.
In this article I’m going to cover how to switch from a goals mindset to a directional mindset which totally changed my life over the past 2 years and is the single reason why this newsletter exists. But first a quick word from a sponsor who allows me to keep creating content:
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FORGET YOUR GOALS
When I moved from a “goals” mindset to a more directional mindset two years ago, my entire life changed.
For 10 years, my goal has always been to build a piece of software that I sell for millions that helps me escape the 9-5 rat race. The issue is this goal was entirely unrealistic. I may have studied Computer Science but my skills were never strong enough to be able to pull off something like this.
I wasted HOURS every night building programs that had a 0% chance of succeeding. This goal of building a billion dollar software company was going to lead me down a dead end path.
So I switched it up. I forgot my goals. I decided to just do the next correct thing. I decided to hop on my ship, look at my compass, and head in the right direction, trusting that if I keep heading in the right direction, I’ll eventually find treasure. I started down a journey of growth, rather than chasing goals.
So here’s what I did: I taught myself Python. No goals of what I wanted to do with it. I just wanted to start learning a new skillset. I wanted to get uncomfortable, knowing discomfort would help me grow.
This was in 2020. COVID just started. Was working from home for the first time. I would take meetings for my day job, then in between take free Python courses on Youtube. I spent about two hours a day picking up this skill.
Eventually after dedicating myself to picking up this new skillset, an idea naturally popped into my head. The money printers were being turned on which led to a raging crypto market. I decided to start coding a crypto scanner. No goals in mind, I just wanted to take my skills to the next level and continue down the path of growth.
I spent about a month coding this crypto scanner before I discovered something new: re-sellable JPEGs that people were calling NFTs. Through my crypto research I stumbled upon this new asset class. I was blown away. The technology was revolutionary in my eyes.
I felt so inspired I just had to get on the internet and talk about them. So I continued my growth journey. I started a Twitter account by the name of NFT God.
I started walking down a new path, but in the same direction. Every day after work I spent 15 minutes writing tweets for NFT God. I wanted to create the highest quality, most valuable tweets possible. This eventually led to me writing threads, which led to me starting a newsletter.
I kept going down that path. I kept putting my left foot forward, then my right one. I made sure every single day one of those feet moved forward. I don’t care if it’s just an inch, I wanted to be consistent with moving in the right direction.
Not once did I think about goals. It was all about moving one inch in the right direction every single day.
A year later, I’m further down that path than I ever thought possible. My Twitter is about to hit 100,000 followers. My newsletter has 19,600 subscribers. I have 650 people in my 1% Club builders group. I didn’t have the goal in mind two years ago when I started this journey of building a community, but it just happened to have turned into the correct path for me.
I don’t know what my goals are from here, I just know I’m going to keep moving in that right direction. Every single day.
Here’s my challenge to you: designate 10 minutes a night for 1 activity that makes you better. Something you know will move you in the right direction. If you can’t think of anything, here are a few recommendations:
Coding (Code Academy)
Writing a newsletter (substack.com)
Read a productive book (The Almanack of Naval Ravikant)
Just 10 minutes a night. Put one foot in front of the other. Keep moving in the right direction. You’ll be shocked at where this journey of growth takes you.
Thank you, it is an excellent post. Your thoughts are very similar to the ‘’Atmamun‘’ philosophy. You wrote about Naval Ravikant, and he has a mentor, whose name is Kapil Gupta. You can find his book about ‘’Atmamun'' on Amazon.
I like your idea of a directional mindset when you aren't yet clear what you want to focus on. Some people have very clear and specific goals. For example, students who attend Embry Riddle Aeronautical University are clear about wanting to be pilots. Their milestones march them, step by step, toward their goal.
If the goal is more of a pipedream, then creating opportunities that open doors to explore makes a lot of sense. It sounds like that's what you have been doing. You have, however, stayed somewhat in your 'lane' - technology. And that makes sense. You have created milestones within that lane that have led you to NFT, which opened the door to writing, and subsequently to your Substack, which is reaping dividends.
Your initial goal of escaping the 9-5 may be in sight, perhaps just through a different door than you originally imagined. I'm rooting for you.