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Goal setting and life goals


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Goal setting and life goals

  #1 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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@tigertrader made this post recently:



I looked around for a good recent discussion on life goals and didn't find one, so thought I would start this thread to encourage others to share some of their goals.

I think that more important than sharing the goal, however, is sharing your plan on how you will accomplish the goal or how you will measure yourself to ensure you are constantly moving towards the goal.

Mike

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  #3 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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I will go first with just a short example from my own life. I have wanted to "retire" outside of the US more or less as soon as I started my first real job (about 15 years ago). In my mind I always envisioned a place that is warm, near water, and where it's laid back and peaceful.

That goal has been realized as I move to Manta, Ecuador in three weeks. You can see the last steps of that journey here:



It is easy to say that for years leading up to that realization I was simply focused on the acquisition of wealth that would make the "retirement" possible. BTW, I keep using quotes on the word "retirement" because while I no longer need to work for income, I do not plan to stop working (trading) any time soon.

Anyway, money is just one part of the equation. And I know that for some people money may seem like the biggest hurdle, but I really think that if I honestly look back at my decisions over the last ~10 years, money was not the primary goal.

Instead, it was to simplify my life and my surroundings. I went into great detail about that part of my life in this 3 hour long webinar:

https://nexusfi.com/webinars/mar19_2011/afternoon_with_big_mike/

But suffice it to say, I made significant changes to my life after having a few epiphanies and truly knowing what I wanted in life. I firmly believe it was those decisions that has led me to where I am today.

In other words, the point I am making is that it isn't simply that I made a lot of money over the last 10 years. It's that I made choices that has allowed me to do that. More over, I made choices that has allowed me to sock that money away towards my life goal instead of spending it in the interim.

I want to emphasize that because I think that for many of you, you probably have the financial means (income) to attain almost anything in life, but are currently lacking in the decision making department the steps necessary to reform your life in such a way that you can realistically reach your goals.

I believe that most people have an aversion to change, and even more so to risk.

I encourage you to document your goals and then come up with specific plans to reach them. I suggest coming up with a monthly plan, a way to measure. Then six month, and one year. Some of you might even find benefit in looking at it on a daily basis and asking yourself "what have I done today to reach my goals?".

The most important thing is to simply ask the question and give yourself honest answers. The second most important thing is to have the ability to recognize that you need to make hard choices and decisions if you are not progressing towards the goal. Ask yourself how important the goal is to your underlying happiness in life, your mental well-being as well as your physical one. How important is it to your loved ones or family members that are surrounded by you?

Good luck on your journey! You can do it!

Mike

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  #4 (permalink)
 
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 wldman 
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in that post Mike. I too have a process for goal setting and attainment, BUT it is something that I have gotten away from...let slip if you will. So I will enjoy the return with some vigor due to the prompt from you.

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The only methodology I have for this is GTD, and the software I use Omnifocus. This is fundamentally outliner software with a number of views.

GTD is more of a "tactical" approach, though, and "strategic" things like big life goals are shunted off into the "Someday/Maybe" category.

And the mindset is project management. You determine a project (rather than a goal) you want to accomplish, then you define all the separate steps in a "critical path" sequence that must be accomplished to finish the project. If it's a complicated project, then each of those steps will have sub-steps and so on.

I have read a book called "Achieving Flow with Omnifocus," and must say that I am in awe of the sophisticated way that some people use this tool. My use is much more rudimentary. Simpler.

But this approach does not really help with tracking and evaluating progress. Once you tick off some item on the list, it disappears and the focus shifts to the next item to be done.

The problem is that some items are recurring and they need to be numerically recorded and tracked and reviewed on a regular basis. For example, the number of steps I walk every day. Very important metric for me.

I was thinking of putting together a huge Excel spreadsheet for this.

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  #6 (permalink)
 
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 Big Mike 
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Created a poll for this

How far are you from reaching your life goals?

Total votes: 341
 


Mike

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  #7 (permalink)
 
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 sands 
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I've so much to do this week :-) let alone be finished for my life goals.

Seriously though for me as much as most of the folks on here its for my family to provide my kids with a good future and financial stability over the years. That is a journey that's just beginning for me. But certainly something that's easy to help motivate me, and push me to be always learning and picking up books and doing research, and fundamentally to never give up.

I think this forum is very cool as it gives us to opportunity to help each other in those journeys that we're on. Many people think this business is full of mean spirited/money grabbers when in reality I've found the people to be warm and honest and genuinely driven by very positive motivations.

Good luck on those journeys people, lets help each other get there!

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Last Updated on February 25, 2014


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