Goals

Here’s something to jostle your idea about goals:

Don’t set goals just because you think achieving them will make you happy.

Oh, it can feel really great sometimes, but research shows us that we are terrible at predicting how we will feel in the future. It turns out that goals serve a much more important role in our lives. Goals help us focus, and focusing, even on something that doesn’t necessarily mean a lot to us, almost always feels great.

Learning how to set inspiring goals is fundamental to making a life you believe in, and these articles are dedicated to helping you craft goals so you:

Stay motivated.
Learn how to find Flow in every task you do.
Embrace failure as you learn new things.
Achieve your dreams.

See how goals fit into the Pilot Fire Simple System for Everything.

How to Find Flow and Make Progress with Smart and Sexy Goals

“A goal is just a measuring stick for my future failure,” she says. So she never makes goals. I don’t blame her at all. Who wants to fail? What if you knew you’d make progress taking the next step toward you dreams? What if you could almost guarantee you’d lose yourself in concentration? And what if

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The One Thing You Could Do to Make Everything Better

Complete this sentence. If only I ________, everything would be better. Really. Write it down. You’ll need it in just a bit. Lookee there, you already know the answer to the one thing you could do to make everything better. Don’t you already feel much better? Let’s juice it up with some visualization. Visualize yourself

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Again, Don’t.

Being a Man of Action, I’m a sucker for passive tactics. Here’s how that works in negotiation. Me: I’ll give you 100 dollars for that! Them: No. Me: Okay, 200! See? Sucker. There are times when I’m so eager to get the deal done and move on that I’ll do what’s called “negotiating against myself.” I’ve

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If Reality Matters to You, Use a Timesheet

Do you really know how you spent your attention last week? When you imagine something specific about the coming week, do you know you’ll feel? Turns out, probably not. To make decisions about the future our brains make up stories to fill in the giant gaps in our knowledge, often based on what we think happened

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A Continuous Creation Timeline

Could you take 6 or 7 minutes to look over a picture? I spent last weekend doing Joel Zaslofsky’s Continuous Creation Challenge and documented almost everything I did in a single infographic. I spent 60+ hours with just a few rules. Create as continuously as possible. Take the best care of my body and energy

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Seek Progress, Kill Perfection

I always wanted to be a great man. I’m not, so far. How we describe our goals makes all the difference, not only in how we feel about ourselves, but in how we behave. Most of us understand the folly of perfection, but it’s very common to hold up our lives to unattainable ideals. Write every

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Put Blood in Your Brain

If you want to focus on anything, get your butt moving. Literally. Shake it, bounce it, move it till you’re panting like Tom Cruise in Minority Report— before he gets the new eyes.† E is for Energize In the SMART & SEXY goal checklist, the E is for Energize. The idea is simple: When you

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On Making Your Life, What Needs a Nudge?

I’m very eager to learn what is working and what needs nudging so you can better make a life you believe in. Please take a few minutes to fill out this form, and I’ll show you a cute puppy video. Thanks, David

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The 5 Questions that Tell You What to Do Next

I’m a top downer. I tend to have lots of big dreams. My big problem is that they all move forward very slowly, too slowly for me. I’m learning to focus and finish things one at a time, so knowing what’s next is super important. In contrast, bottom uppers jump to the next thing, sometimes

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Pushing off Another Shore, What Dreams May Come

I can hear the lapping waters against the dinghy I imagine my life to be right now. A year ago I was in free fall, and today, the day my divorce becomes official, I can barely see the distant shore of what was once my marriage. I am quietly floating, headed toward some new country

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