Is there a way to assess goals to make them more controllable?
What is your loftiest goal in life? Some of the most successful people in the world are great at placing mental frameworks to help them achieve their desired goals. What I am going to attempt to do is provide you with a framework for accomplishing seemingly impossible goals; at the very least I want to give you the best possible shot at doing so. Would you agree that when we have a goal everything we do in life either has an impact that steps us towards this goal or away from it? If I can get you to agree to this then half the battle is won.
Complete mission alignment
To frame a model, I am going to use a couple of major buckets for decisions. But in your own life feel free to bucket however you see fit. For now, think about the daily choices we make in each of these sections.
Money– How in alignment are your money habits with the goal?
People– Who are the people you spend the most time with? Are they similarly motivated, supportive, or give good advice?
Time– How do you spend your time? If you really think about it any goal is a combination of time and what we spend our time on. In short time management.
Education– Are you educating towards your goal? What are the books you read? Podcasts you listen to? Do you think of education as the tool to get you to goals?
Mindset– How strong is your mindset? Are you disciplined, are you optimistic in the face of struggles?
What I am hoping to get you to think about is the everyday choices we make that can either align us to our goals or away from them. For clarity, let me give you an example of the impact of the decisions we make every day.
A small decision- You have a free half-hour. How do you spend it? Do you pick up a book relevant to your mission? Or the remote?
A large decision- Deciding to quit something counterproductive to your goals – perhaps alcohol?
Now, does this mean if you force yourself to give up certain things and do everything perfect in life you are guaranteed mission success? No, but the goal here is to demonstrate how we can control some aspects of daily life to increase our odds of success.
Breaking down daily actions into ‘decision trees’
To help bolster your mental framework, here are two decision trees you can use to help you visualize the impact of a decision. The first tree is to give you mathematical references. The second is meant to show how just a single decision in the five sections in your life can quickly cause things to spiral.
Graph 1- Weighted Choice Alignment
I’ve assigned some arbitrary ratios for reference but in your own head ask yourself, “how much impact (or weight) does this count towards or away from my goal?” In our example above, a ratio of 9/10 would be a major decision that steps us in the right direction of making a major impact. The ratio is large because the decision is very impactful towards mission alignment. Whereas 1/10 is still a major decision, it is one made in the opposite direction. While it may not completely kill your goal, it is not as in alignment with your goals.. Think of large ratio differences as impactful and closer ratios such as 4/10-6/10 are less impactful but will take their effects over long periods. To equate it to our example above: choosing to watch TV over reading a book would be a small change and quitting alcohol would be a large one.
Graph 2 The Power of Choices
Controlling the odds
There is not a perfect ratio of choices that get you to your goals in life. But if we don’t start by defining and attempting a goal then we will never get there. As I see it the best way to improve our odds of accomplishing the impossible is by controlling that which we can control.
They say life is about the journey and not the destination. Can you see how quickly aligning your journey to the destination can lead to great personal accomplishment?
