Goal Diggers
“Setting Goals is the first step in Turning the Invisible into the Visible.”
Everyone talks about achieving your dreams and completing your goals, goal setting, etc. It’s big business and motivational speakers get paid to make you feel good about it. But what is the value?
We’ve talked about Dreams in detail and how important they are. We haven’t talked about Goals. They often get conflated, but there are some very big differences. Dreams are the starting point for most of what comes after. Dreams are the visualization of your desires. Visualization is important. I may go into that in another entry. Just know that it’s not a coincidence that it’s an effective part of manifesting goals. Most of humanity is visual and it’s the primary way we draw conclusions about the world. What separates Dreams and Goals is their specificity. A Dream might be:
“I want to be wealthy, drive exotic cars, and live in New York.”
That's not specific at all. There are a million different ways to address that Dream. It’s very nebulous. The beautiful part is that’s where it starts. Initial Goals don’t usually start without dreams. Goals are more specific because to address the dream they have to be. Dreams can be without form or shape or detail and that’s okay because goals help take dreams from being something that is in your imagination and pull them into the real world. A goal could be:
Become a Wallstreet hedgefund manager.
Okay, what’s the difference? This statement has more specificity and is tangible. A hedge fund manager is an occupation. Wallstreet is a physical location. However, the Goal only addresses 2 parts of the dream…to live in New York. Hedgefund managers make lots of money though, right? Depends. The ones we all hear about make 100 million + a year! Your average hedgefund manager in New York City makes about $165,000 a year. So you could afford to rent some exotic cars from time to time, but you certainly couldn’t lease one and still live in New York and it doesn’t meet the criteria of wealthy (at least not according to U.S. News, which is to have a net worth north of 1.8 Million dollars). Did I know that off the top of my head? Nope. I had to look it up. Why did I have to look it up? Because I wasn’t sure if being a hedge fund manager in New York would address the entire dream. This is the other power of Goals…they force you to gather information. Dreams are easy to think up. They don’t require context, or information, or detail. They only require the power of thought, and that’s it. It can be in your head one moment and gone the next without consequence. Goals don’t work the same way. Goals require some thought and relevant information, and if you plan on getting them done they require you have at least a modicum of understanding of who you are.
It aint gotta be a dream, it can be real if you want it to.
So does the goal address the dream? No, it does not. We want to be wealthy, not regular. So maybe we add something else that quantifies what the goal looks like:
Become a Wallstreet hedge fund manager with an income of at least 2 Million dollars.
Now we are cooking with gas. This is an occupation, in the location, with a listed income that will qualify someone as wealthy. It certainly allows the income to purchase an exotic car or at the very lease it. This addresses the dream in its entirety. Are we done? Well, we could be, but that also depends on whether you want to achieve the goal or not. One might look at the goal and deem it achievable and on one level it is. It is something that a human being could accomplish if they have the will to exceed and mental capacity for the job. Here’s where the next part of making Goals comes in…piecemealing. I separate goals into two major piles. Major and Minor. Major goals require additional goals underneath that goal to get accomplished. Minor goals do not.
Minor Goal: Make my bed each morning
Major Goal: Become a Wallstreet hedge fund manager with an income of at least 2 Million dollars.
Almost all goals depend on something else to happen for them to be successful. Even with the Minor goal, I can’t achieve it if I don’t wake up that morning and get up. But the difference with the Major is pretty obvious. It’s not a matter of one decision it’s a matter of several decisions and because of that, it’s often easier to break it down into smaller goals. I call this piecemealing. They say the way you eat an elephant is one bite at a time, well major goals are no different. Breaking the big goal down into smaller goals doesn’t just make it easier to digest, it makes it easier for you to examine those smaller goals for how you need to go about achieving them. Planning is something we’ll talk about next entry, for this one we are going to stay focused on goals. In breaking down goals the easiest thing for me to do is go by the requirements of the goal. I believe requirements are one of the most important parts of the entire goal-making process. Requirements are the next step in making the goal a reality. If you don’t know what’s required to achieve, how can you achieve it? Requirements are also a good way to test a goal. If your goal is something very few people have to achieve then it can be very difficult to know what is required, but very few people dream, and goal set on that level. If it’s something others have done before then it’s likely you can find some requirements for it. If you can’t then it’s very likely your goal isn’t specific enough and leaning more in that dream direction. So we’ve got our goal to become a Wallstreet hedge fund manager with an income of at least 2 Million dollars. What’s required to become a hedge fund manager? Technically, not much. You can become one out of high school for nothing. But you don’t just fall into a job like that, so how does this happen? You’ve got to figure out what else allows people to get into these positions and make goals based on that. It’s a simple process but it requires intention.
Goals are what you make them but if they are specific then what’s the point?