What is this blasphemy I speak of? I’m sure you’ve read lots of business books and listened to Tony Robbins and the rest of the gurus. The Google machine has taken you to exotic blogs and websites about how to be successful and setting goals is always Step Number One. Right?
Sorry folks, but, most of you have no idea how to set a goal and the other half don’t give a shit about goal setting, and the other half of you are super anal type A, list making people with journals full of goals. Yes, I know that is three halves. But I don’t care because I operate on my own terms. That’s the reason I have the audacity to say that your goals are preventing your success.
OK Jeff… please explain.
Don’t mind if I do…
Here is an example of most people’s idea of a Goal: I want to be a millionaire. That is a pretty common goal. The problem is you don’t have a clue how to get there and it seems so impossible you don’t know where to start. And that prevents you from making it happen. And that makes it a dream, not a goal. It doesn’t matter if you write it down, you say it in the mirror to yourself every morning, or you tattoo it on your forehead. Most people would be much better served with the goal of getting out of debt or saving 20% of their salary. But those goals aren’t sexy. You can also set goals that are too low and then they don’t take much effort to achieve. The whole process of goal setting is a fickle beast.
Now it’s time for some personal confessions.
Personal Confession #1
I don’t make goals. I’ve tried it. It just doesn’t work for me. I’ve been to the seminars and watched the YouTube videos. I get all fired up and say “This time I’m really going to do it. I’m going to spend a whole afternoon on goal setting and create a road map for my future”. I will sit in my office and turn off all the distractions and try like hell to figure out where I want to be in 6 months and what I hope to achieve after 12 months, and what kind of car will be parked in the driveway after 10 years. I crunch the numbers and try to figure out how many phone calls I need to make to set an appoint, and how many appointments it takes to get a sale, all to reach the magical numerical daily and monthly goals. It’s exhausting. And then I close that notebook and I never open it again. I finally realized, FOR ME, that the exercise doesn’t do me any good. I’ll even go one step farther. Business Plans are a waste of time. They are another task I find to be useless. Most
Personal Confession #2
When I decided to start a Blog to help people become super successful awesome people I thought that, for me, to help everyone reach Financial Independence (FI) I was going to have to write a blog on goal setting. Because that’s what all the Gurus tell everyone to do. I think this is about the seventh post I’ve written, and what I’ve learned in the process is that I don’t need to be like the rest of the Gurus. Especially when everyone is saying the same thing. I decided from the beginning that I want this to be a place where I can tell people what I did, and how it worked for me. I want to be honest and open and I want you to trust the words I’m writing. I really think that authenticity is my goal and I can’t do that by selling you an idea that doesn’t work for me.
So Jeff, you wander through life with no goals and no direction?
No, of course not. That would be dumb.
Ever since I was a small little businessman I knew I was going to be an Entrepreneur. First I had a lemonade stand and then a lawn mowing business. When I got a car and I could strap a ladder on the top of it I started a gutter cleaning business. As I got older, I always had the foresight to know that I wasn’t going to have a pension, or a company matched 401K plan. I knew my retirement was going to be own responsibility. My first idea was that I just needed 10 ideas that make $1000 a month. I thought that sounded easier than one big grand idea to make $100K a year. Then I tried to think of products or things that didn’t require full-time attention. That was before I know terms like ‘passive income’ or ‘F.I.R.E.’. As I struggled with that idea it morphed into buying 10 houses that each makes a $1000 a month. Then I could retire. So, YES, I’ve always had a goal. But it was just one big general idea of a goal. Get to $100K in passive income and retire and live the good life.
It’s been quite a journey. The process has changed, I’ve been kicked in the teeth, gone broke, and started over. But the end goal has never changed. I’ve been steadfast in my efforts to get to MY magic number of $100K in passive income.
Oh… I lied. I just remember I did have another goal when I was younger, and I feel like it is worth mentioning to prove my point about how stupid people are about making goals (myself included). I had a goal to be a millionaire by the time I was 30. And I always said, “I DON’T need to have a Net Worth of $1,000,000”. I just needed to have a million dollars worth of stuff to be able to say I accomplished my goal. I wasn’t talking about net worth. I thought if I could hit that goal that the rest of the chips would just fall into place. And I accomplished it by the time I was either 31 or 32. When the market crashed in 2008 I had about $1.2M worth of debt on my credit report. The problem was that it was all debt. And after the market crashed it was only worth around $800K when the bank took it all away from me. I couldn’t sell it, and I couldn’t afford to keep it. So I lost it all. And, don’t for a minute think that was
So be careful what you wish for and don’t set stupid goals. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t set goals. It works for some people. And to those people, I say, “more power to you”. But if you are like me, and goal setting doesn’t work. Don’t stress out about it. Everyone’s path is different. And remember, the ultimate goal is Financial Freedom. Just be sure the things you are doing are moving you in the right direction. Don’t buy stupid stuff, spend less than you make, invest as much as you can, and repeat. That’s how I did it. And so can you.