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Harmonious
. All of your goals should be aligned, complementing each other to create unified action. In this way, they can work together to make each one easier to achieve. Conflicting goals cause frustration and stress. (During my RV trip across the U.S., I had two goals that didn’t work well together: I wanted to stay fit and I wanted to drink beer in every city I visited. You can guess how that turned out…)
Flexible
. You
r goals will evolve over time. As your priorities change, your goals should too. Don’t abandon difficult goals, but be willing to alter direction as your circumstances and priorities change.
Activity-based.
Goals that involve doing rather than getting tend to make people happier and more motivated. For one thing, you’re likely to adapt quickly to whatever it is you achieve — whether it’s moving to Miami or buying a new computer — so that the anticipated pleasure fades rapidly. Plus, you have more control over whether you do something than if you obtain something. For example, it’s better to create a goal in which you aim to take 100 photographs per day (an action you can control) rather than one in which you aim to sell a photo to a national magazine (an outcome that may be beyond your reach).
That last bullet point is important and deserves additional clarification.
Remember how I’ve written in the past about developing an internal locus of control? (If not, no worries. I’ll be re-publishing that article here at Get Rich Slowly in just a few days!)
The first tenet of the Get Rich Slowly philosophy is: You are the boss of you. This means that you should spend time and money on the things that you can actually influence while ignoring those that you can’t. When pursuing goals, I can’t determine the results; I can only determine my effort. Thus, it makes sense to set goals based on my actions (write two hours per day, go to the gym five times a week, max out my Roth IRA) instead of desired outcomes (get 100,000 email subscribers, bench-press my bodyweight, earn a 10% return on my investments)
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I think of it like this: It’s better to prioritize habits over targets. You have more control over your input than you do over the outcomes.
Why go to all this trouble when setting goals? Because if you’re careful to create good goals, you’ll get better results — with your life and your finances. And the better your results, the more likely you’ll be to continue working toward your goals…and your larger purpose.
Your Most Important Goals
Here’s a quick exercise drawn from
The How of Happiness.
Think about your current goals, the ones that are most important to your life today. “Goals” include intentions, wishes, dreams, and desires. On a piece of paper, list at least eight of your most meaningful goals. (You can list more than eight, but please list at least eight of your most important goals.)
Now you’re going to evaluate each of your goals individually. Go through them one by one and ask yourself:
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Is the goal intrinsic or extrinsic? Are you doing it because you want to, or because somebody else wants you to?
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Is the goal authentic or inauthentic? Does it f
eel like it fits you, or does it feel like it’s not quite aligned with who you are?
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Is the goal positive or negative? Are you working toward a desired outcome, or are you trying to avoid something you don’t want?
