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Write down your goals... Quick life tip with story...

Anything related to matters of the mind

Kak

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Happy Monday...

This is going to potentially be cheesy as hell to some of you, but I don't care. I learned something important that I want to share.

For 2018 my written goal was to FINISH 52 books... It was a written goal. I ended 2018 having read (or listened to) 48... I blame Titan, the biography of John D Rockefeller which is the length of 4 books. I was pretty happy with that finish.

2019 rolls around... "I will read a lot of books again this year too!" That was my goal.... "a lot of books." Guess how many books I have finished 6 months into 2019?

Three and a half.

So I am resetting again... A book a week for the rest of the year... Among other thing's I was too lazy to take 10 minutes and write.

Bottom line, write your goals... Make them specific, step one processes. Your goal shouldn't be to "increase sales" it should be to "contact 2 potential customers per day." One is something that has action written all over it and the other is just arbitrary.

It is ridiculously easy with a huge potential ripple effect. There are a lot of studies that show goal setting is incredibly effective. The risk VS reward is off the charts. Go ahead, "waste" 10 minutes this Monday writing your goals for the rest of the year and compare to the first half.
 
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LightHouse

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The litmus test is can you say "yes" to it. Did you read a lot of books? How many is "a lot"?

Did you read 52 books in 12 months? Yes/no.

Make your goals measurable, break them down into smaller timelines to track progression of they are large.

In June, if you aren't at or near 26 books read, you adjust.
 

MTEE1985

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Timely. I just had to admit that same thing to myself 2 weeks ago regarding my goals.

IOU $250 Rep

Hopefully this doesn't trigger somebody and derail the thread but goals is an area where I think Cardone really nails it.
 
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Monica Rose

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Sometimes it works in ways you don't even have direct control over. Or at least not in the A + B = C way that making a goal of reading a certain number of books works (you read the books you get the results). When you are clear, and specific on your goals, sometimes the universe (or whatever you call it) works on your behalf, even when you're not thinking about it. For example, when my husband was a young teen his dream was to live in Hawaii and own a German Shepherd. Fast forward 20+ years, with infinite amounts of decisions made in the meantime, and here we are living in Hawaii, with a German Shepherd. Considering he grew up in Canada, this wasn't an obvious outcome.

I have plenty of examples like this one, but my point is that when you set an intention, and write that shit down, sometimes you move towards it deliberately, but sometimes your unconscious mind comes into play with the decisions you make, and sometimes, more opportunities to help you achieve that goal "mysteriously" come across your path.

Photo of German Shepherd in Hawaii for attention :)
 
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MJ DeMarco

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Want to be really challenged?

Read a book with a perspective that challenges your beliefs or biases.

Most people who have goals for book reading only read books that CONFIRM their biases, they don't seek to challenge them.

If you're an atheist, read something that argues the case for God or religion.
If you subscribe to a particular religion, read something that argues the case against it.
If you believe Trump is a dictator, read something that argues he's the best thing since sliced bread.
If you believe Trump is the next Ronald Reagan, read something that argues he's a tyrant.

Book reading is always impressive, but more impressive is book reading that challenges beliefs and biases.
 

maverick

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Want to be really challenged?

Read a book with a perspective that challenges your beliefs or biases.

Most people who have goals for book reading only read books that CONFIRM their biases, they don't seek to challenge them.

If you're an atheist, read something that argues the case for God or religion.
If you subscribe to a particular religion, read something that argues the case against it.
If you believe Trump is a dictator, read something that argues he's the best thing since sliced bread.
If you believe Trump is the next Ronald Reagan, read something that argues he's a tyrant.

Book reading is always impressive, but more impressive is book reading that challenges beliefs and biases.

Highly recommended book for non-believers:
 
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Andy Black

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Happy Monday...

This is going to potentially be cheesy as hell to some of you, but I don't care. I learned something important that I want to share.

For 2018 my written goal was to FINISH 52 books... It was a written goal. I ended 2018 having read (or listened to) 48... I blame Titan, the biography of John D Rockefeller which is the length of 4 books. I was pretty happy with that finish.

2019 rolls around... "I will read a lot of books again this year too!" That was my goal.... "a lot of books." Guess how many books I have finished 6 months into 2019?

Three and a half.

So I am resetting again... A book a week for the rest of the year... Among other thing's I was too lazy to take 10 minutes and write.

Bottom line, write your goals... Make them specific, step one processes. Your goal shouldn't be to "increase sales" it should be to "contact 2 potential customers per day." One is something that has action written all over it and the other is just arbitrary.

It is ridiculously easy with a huge potential ripple effect. There are a lot of studies that show goal setting is incredibly effective. The risk VS reward is off the charts. Go ahead, "waste" 10 minutes this Monday writing your goals for the rest of the year and compare to the first half.
I like the “contact 2 customers a day” and “read a book a week” type of goals.
 

Dark Knight

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Highly recommended book for non-believers:

I can add these books from myself:

 

awestbro

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I had the mindset "I should build this SaaS app" for 4 years. Last November I started making actionable tasks (goals) and measuring my progress after reading MFL. Launched my app last week and I'm continually adding in the To Do column.

Breaking down things into actionable goals keeps them from tumbling around in my head forever, stuck in analysis paralysis mode. Make goals, take action, go fast.
 
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fishgodeep

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Want to be really challenged?

Read a book with a perspective that challenges your beliefs or biases.

Most people who have goals for book reading only read books that CONFIRM their biases, they don't seek to challenge them.

In the words of Bill Burr
"The worlds most popular website is www.I'mright.com"

This is a great idea and admittedly something I've never done. Like most people I reside in an information vacuum where only the same sources come in.

I accept this challenge, and will read some Naomi Klein. Something I thought I'd never say ha
 

ChrisV

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Basically all the research on goal setting theory says that goals should be written the way @Kak said:

UA_SMART_GFX_HP_Infographic_V4.jpg
 

ChrisV

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ExaltedLife

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Happy Monday...

This is going to potentially be cheesy as hell to some of you, but I don't care. I learned something important that I want to share.

For 2018 my written goal was to FINISH 52 books... It was a written goal. I ended 2018 having read (or listened to) 48... I blame Titan, the biography of John D Rockefeller which is the length of 4 books. I was pretty happy with that finish.

How is Titan? I have it sitting on my shelf next to bios on Carnegie, Ford and Vanderbilt that I also haven't read
 

YoungPadawan

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Happy Monday...

This is going to potentially be cheesy as hell to some of you, but I don't care. I learned something important that I want to share.

For 2018 my written goal was to FINISH 52 books... It was a written goal. I ended 2018 having read (or listened to) 48... I blame Titan, the biography of John D Rockefeller which is the length of 4 books. I was pretty happy with that finish.

2019 rolls around... "I will read a lot of books again this year too!" That was my goal.... "a lot of books." Guess how many books I have finished 6 months into 2019?

Three and a half.

So I am resetting again... A book a week for the rest of the year... Among other thing's I was too lazy to take 10 minutes and write.

Bottom line, write your goals... Make them specific, step one processes. Your goal shouldn't be to "increase sales" it should be to "contact 2 potential customers per day." One is something that has action written all over it and the other is just arbitrary.

It is ridiculously easy with a huge potential ripple effect. There are a lot of studies that show goal setting is incredibly effective. The risk VS reward is off the charts. Go ahead, "waste" 10 minutes this Monday writing your goals for the rest of the year and compare to the first half.
Hey, I read Titan too a few months ago! Reading that he was the biggest refiner in Cleveland by age 24 really lit a fire under my a$$.

Definitely agree about goal setting as well. I have a Google Sheet spreadsheet with my weekly, monthly, 6 month and yearly goals that automatically opens whenever I open a new tab in Chrome to keep my goals in my mind. Good, actionable advice!
 

Kak

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ChrisV

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Want to be really challenged?

Read a book with a perspective that challenges your beliefs or biases.

Most people who have goals for book reading only read books that CONFIRM their biases, they don't seek to challenge them.

If you're an atheist, read something that argues the case for God or religion.
If you subscribe to a particular religion, read something that argues the case against it.
If you believe Trump is a dictator, read something that argues he's the best thing since sliced bread.
If you believe Trump is the next Ronald Reagan, read something that argues he's a tyrant.

Book reading is always impressive, but more impressive is book reading that challenges beliefs and biases.
I recently did this with Christianity as I have a pretty serious distaste for religion. I was pleasantly surprised at how much sense the overall philosophy made, even if I don't really agree with many of the supernatural elements.

Also reading stuff that's just pure objective truth. I've literally dropped all news sources that have any types of political tilt whatsoever. I literally only read Reuters and the Associated Press and factchecking sites. The last election really showed me how much bullshit gets spewed from both sides of the aisles.
 

Jeff Noel

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Bottom line, write your goals... Make them specific, step one processes. Your goal shouldn't be to "increase sales" it should be to "contact 2 potential customers per day." One is something that has action written all over it and the other is just arbitrary.

It is ridiculously easy with a huge potential ripple effect. There are a lot of studies that show goal setting is incredibly effective. The risk VS reward is off the charts. Go ahead, "waste" 10 minutes this Monday writing your goals for the rest of the year and compare to the first half.

I'm reading The Compound Effect and just read a page where the author suggest this trick to someone overweight, wishing to run a half marathon. He told her to to walk for 1 mile, 3 times in the next 2 weeks. Then he told her to walk 1 mile, 3 times within the next week, then to walk 1 mile everyday for the next week.... You get the point. Nine month later, this woman was running 13.5 miles everyday, which is more than her original goal was. She thought her goal was unachievable.

Starting small has way more chances of finishing big than not starting at all.
 

Monica Rose

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I'm reading The Compound Effect and just read a page where the author suggest this trick to someone overweight, wishing to run a half marathon. He told her to to walk for 1 mile, 3 times in the next 2 weeks. Then he told her to walk 1 mile, 3 times within the next week, then to walk 1 mile everyday for the next week.... You get the point. Nine month later, this woman was running 13.5 miles everyday, which is more than her original goal was. She thought her goal was unachievable.

Starting small has way more chances of finishing big than not starting at all.

Agreed! Other good books on this include The Kaizen Method: One Small Step Can Change Your Life, Atomic Habits by James Clear (really good audiobook), and Triggers: Creating Behavior That Lasts - Becoming the Person You Want to Be by Marshall Goldsmith (also good in audiobook format).
 
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YoungPadawan

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Can you make this goal measurable?
Step 1: buy a Brooks Brothers suit
Step 2: go golfing every week to meet the upper echelons of society
Step 3: get Wells Fargo business account
Step 4: swim in pool filled with $100 bills
 
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JAJT

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I've been wanting to get into real estate for years, although it's always been a "one day" goal.

Late 2018 I wrote down, and internally committed to, the goal of buying my first rental by the end of 2019. Honestly things haven't been all that great for me for a while now so I made this basically my only goal. I figured if I did this one thing, I'd be happy with 2019 regardless of anything else.

I went to seminars, joined clubs, read books, subscribed to magazines, and even reached out to a few folks from here for some advice.

I can honestly say we're not in a great money position. I've been self-employed for 5 years and most of my income has gone to various businesses I've been trying to get off the ground (and most of that profit went to the school of hard knocks). My wife has a pretty good job with good income - above average but not extraordinary. We also have two kids who are in various extra curriculars. We had some equity in our home, but again - nothing fancy.

Honestly - it wasn't a good time to invest. But we had made the goal and my wife as on board and despite bouts of depression and fear and uncertainty and financial difficulty (and a hell of a lot of back and forth with financial institutions) we closed on our first highly cash-flowing duplex on May 1st of this year:

25326

We own the right half of this building, which includes a legal upper and lower unit.

So far it's been a bit of a nightmare but we're taking it one step at a time and when all the kinks are smoothed out it will be a great little property that cashflows really, really nicely.

IMHO writing the goal down is important - but committing to it is even more important. It's easy to write "lose 50 lbs" down on a piece of paper with glitter and magic markers but unless you COMMIT to it, nothing happens. You need to align everything inside of you to your goal and DECIDE to make it happen.

A lot of people make goals but very few people make commitments to themselves and align their actions to that goal. There's so many things that people "want to do" but ask them to actually do it and you quickly find they don't REALLY want to go through with it.

Write down those goals, align your world to them, and magic is possible.
 

Olimac21

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Build systems within your goals and break them down into small actionable steps. For instance lets say you want to read a book a week and your average book is 200 pages long, put as a daily goal a minimum of 30 pages. If you can also be very specific on when and where would you do that (commuting? morning vs night time).

MJ is right also, read quake books those books that are opposite to your beliefs or challenge your worldviews. I think just reading for the sake of reading can be a dangerous waste of time, pick your list in advance and be honest whether you are reading to improve your life/business or just to keep the score within your goal.
 
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Kak

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Eric Flathers

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Sometimes it works in ways you don't even have direct control over. Or at least not in the A + B = C way that making a goal of reading a certain number of books works (you read the books you get the results). When you are clear, and specific on your goals, sometimes the universe (or whatever you call it) works on your behalf, even when you're not thinking about it. For example, when my husband was a young teen his dream was to live in Hawaii and own a German Shepherd. Fast forward 20+ years, with infinite amounts of decisions made in the meantime, and here we are living in Hawaii, with a German Shepherd. Considering he grew up in Canada, this wasn't an obvious outcome.

I have plenty of examples like this one, but my point is that when you set an intention, and write that shit down, sometimes you move towards it deliberately, but sometimes your unconscious mind comes into play with the decisions you make, and sometimes, more opportunities to help you achieve that goal "mysteriously" come across your path.

Photo of German Shepherd in Hawaii for attention :)

Monica makes a great point, our subconscious mind is where a lot of the work is actually done. Now yes you still need to have laser focus on the task you are working on but by writing down your goals. And going over them every day, be it an affirmation or vision board or a post-it note on your desk that states what your goal is, these all do one thing and that is train your mind to focus on the goal. We learn by repetition. It's like setting 30 pages a day for reading. After a certain amount of days if you stick to it, then it becomes a habit.

The other thing is when your subconscious mind knows what the goal is it will then start to let in information and opportunities that will get you to that goal. There is so much information we are bombarded with every day and our minds have to filter what is important to us. If you give it direction (write down your goals and look at them every day), then it will know what to let in and what to block. It's the whole if you are thinking of buying a yellow VW then you start to see yellow VW's everywhere.
 

Kevin88660

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Want to be really challenged?

Read a book with a perspective that challenges your beliefs or biases.

Most people who have goals for book reading only read books that CONFIRM their biases, they don't seek to challenge them.

If you're an atheist, read something that argues the case for God or religion.
If you subscribe to a particular religion, read something that argues the case against it.
If you believe Trump is a dictator, read something that argues he's the best thing since sliced bread.
If you believe Trump is the next Ronald Reagan, read something that argues he's a tyrant.

Book reading is always impressive, but more impressive is book reading that challenges beliefs and biases.
This is indeed very true.

I am guilty of this speaking in terms of personal reflection and soul searching.

Back in college I took a heavy does of the libertarian-friedman-ayn rand ideology, stepping outside of school into the real world taught me more.

Back in college I thought stock investing is all about Buffetology- buying undervalued stocks. When I grow maturer I understood buffet runs a hedge fund with leverage, practices investor activism and make use of his personal branding to make good deals. It is a lot more complicated than that.

Back in college I also believed that the greatest speculation in my life time was to buy silver bars and waiting for the world to crash and burn in hyper monetary inflation. In some sense it is right but that’s like saying eventually we will all die. To make meaningful and consistent income that is not reliant on external factors I now know I need income from business activities.

As a social science geek I always believe in models and rationale behaviors as the sole guidance for actions. I met a friend in the civil service who Is also a successful property investor. As a married man with two kids he was advising me don't just work and go take some time off to find a girl and get married. I replied that of course I understand that I do not plan to stay single forever. Having no kids to take care of me next time is bad also.

“No you don't get it, it is not about having kids to take care of you next time. Time is different and everyone eventually will have their own family.”

“Then whats all these sacrifice for?” I replied.

“It is to feel being loved.” He replied.

I am silent but in my my mind thinking “hahhaah what nonsense. It cannot be observed, measured or quantified.”

Two years later now I no longer think my radical view is totally appropriate. I visit my clients in hospitals and attended the funerals of deceased clients. Altruistic Human bonding is real. Life is fragile and we are complicated creatures. Human behavior is not about maximizing utility functions in Economics textbooks. The people who called me crazy were not morons that I believed. If you take a cynical view of the world and look at it in black and white terms and indeed you will only see black and white and meanwhile missing out the colors of life.
 

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