Post: #1

When it comes to personal development, dreams are big and talk is cheap. Whenever you ask, all people "have plans" to travel the world, start a business, get 6-pack abs, and live a better lifestyle.

However, 99% of people on this earth never achieve their dreams. It is the real tragedy of the human experiment.

But not you, dear RVF reader. You think Outside The Box and have an insatiable penchant for self improvement. And with this simple method that I present, you will see gains and marked improvements in your life.

Why? Because your plans have dates attached to them. When you set a goal for yourself, you also attach a reasonable date of completion to that goal. Many people scoff at this method for its simplicity, others are put off by it, or become defensive and dismissive.

Why? Because it forces you to be real with yourself, your resources, and your capabilities as an individual. It forces you to think about Work and Play and Sacrifice. This scares people, because it breaks down the facade of “following your dreams” and “everything happens for a reason” and other cliches used to placate the masses. Most of all? It forces you to be ACCOUNTABLE to yourself. Find me 10 people and 9 of them have never been accountable to themselves for anything.

That is why this simple method works well in both business and personal development.

Let me break it down with an example.

Friend: Yeah man, I want to go live in Thailand for a year, the culture sounds amazing
Blurred: When do you want to go?
Friend: Sometime in my life man, I don’t care when
Blurred: Pick a date
Friend: Geez man, chill out. Um, how about July 1, 2015
Blurred: How much money do you need to go?
Friend: About $15,000 more than I will ever have in my savings
Blurred: So you need a second job to make more money
Friend: I guess I could ask for a raise
Blurred: No, you won’t meet your deadline. Get a Saturday job serving tables and put 100% into savings. In 6 months you will have the money you need
Friend: Ok, I can do that. What about my job, my car, my apartment?
Blurred: Notify your landlord on June 1st. Put in your 2 weeks notice on June 15. Sell your car the last week of June.

And so on…

As you can see, when you attach a date, it causes things to fall into place. It is an aggressive approach, because you have to make changes and sacrifices in your life in order to meet your goal. It pushes you to do things (like taking a second job, selling your car, etc.) that you normally never would have done. Before you know it, your plan is underway and you are taking concrete action toward something important to you and your character.

Some people say "A thousand mile journey begins with a single step." Bullshit! It begins when you pick a date.

Be wary of people who “plan to live healthier from now on” or “plan to get strong this year” or “plan to learn Spanish during my life.” They are often just dreamers and have no intention of acting on their plans in any organized manner, which means they will never realize their goals. If you can’t tell which type of person you are dealing with, simply ask them: “When?”

When are you going to learn Spanish? When are you going to start your own business? When will you compete in a marathon? They’ll look at you quizzically. It will shake them up. It might piss them off. But for some, it will set them in the right direction.

Without a date attached, you don’t have a plan - you have an idea. And ideas will never, ever take you anywhere.

Good luck RVF’ers. Try it out and report back.

Post: #2

"Creativity, sometimes, starts with a deadline." - Karl Bartos of Kraftwerk

Also see the Death Ground strategy by Robert Greene.

Post: #3

im an avid user of the aforementioned method. it works

Post: #4

Great thread. I'm setting Christmas eve as my goal date to get ripped. I'm going to stick to my macros every day until then, and then enjoy good Christmas food with my family as a reward. Should counter the typical holiday weight gain people get from pigging out Nov-Jan.

Post: #5

A-fuckin-men! This advice is pure gold, print this out if you have to (I am).

Post: #6

You're basically describing SMART goals, well really SMT goals because the AR part is kind of mushy.

A good goal is specific, measurable, and time bound. The A and R are assignable/achievable and realistic/relevant depending on who you talk to - in either case I think those kind of go without saying especially for personal goals.

Post: #7

The person I most looked up to as a mentor when I was younger used to tell me to force myself into death ground.

He'd say "go order that ferrari and sign the finance payments..you will make it happen".

He was right (for me). Every time I need money for something that I don't have at that moment the urgency forces a hustle.

Post: #8

I am setting a plan in motion to have a job abroad paying U.S. salary and work remote in 2 years from now.

I having been averaging learning Spanish an hour a day.

I stopped drinking with friends just for fun to focus more on Spanish and professional skills, save $.

I get mad when a day is wasted by frivillous things instead of saying "there is always tomorrow".

There isn't always tomorrow once you get to around 25 years old or so and the college world is open to anything mentality starts shutting down around you.

----

Best thing I've done is keep a daily time sheet of things I am working towards.

It really throws it in your face when you waste a day and makes you satisfied when you've put in hours of extra work.

Post: #9

A concept that is very much related to yours that greatly helped me is to break down what you have to do daily to achieve your goal.

So if my goal is to be fluent in Russian in two years, to my brain it sounds like I can kick back and relax a little - for there is still time. But breaking down what I need to do daily for those two years (1-2hrs of active study) it takes away all illusions. Committing up to two hours to something EVERY DAY without fail is pretty damn hard. So now, from the time I wake up, my brain scans for opportunities to fit in half an hour of study to meet my quotas. It wouldn't do that if all it was thinking was "Aah, well, two years to go."

The deadline is obviously a prerequisite for this "technique", so I'm merely supporting OP's view.

Good post.

Post: #10

(11-30-2014 07:27 PM)Travesty444 Wrote:  There isn't always tomorrow once you get to around 25 years old or so and the college world is open to anything mentality starts shutting down around you.

It really throws it in your face when you waste a day and makes you satisfied when you've put in hours of extra work.

I can relate strongly too this, which is amusing in retrospect as i use to be the complete opposite with my time; but as you say.. when you get older and begin push past 25 and above and your still 'coasting' through on the 'Im still young and have time to relax' mentality.. it's only so long before reality starts crashing down hard.

These days i would rather work an extra shift on the weekend then have time off because the money i earn and save continues to go towards my long term goal of setting up a business abroad. Once you have that goal in place and a means to achieve it.. time suddenly becomes the most valuable currency in your life, and you should be utilizing it to it's maximum efficiency.

Post: #11

" one year from now you wish you had started today"

Post: #12

There's another level to goal setting that I don't see discussed here (or anywhere) much.

Once you are able to set specific, measurable, time bound goals you should periodically (every 3-6 months) check in and see how you're doing. Did you meet your goals? What ones were easy, what ones were hard? The answers to those questions will tell you where your effective skills are.

For instance, if you want to be a song writer and you set a goal of written x number of songs in 6 months. If at the end of 6 months you haven't written any songs then you need to face up to the fact that no matter how talented you think you might be you are actually not that good at writing songs. On the other hand if you find that some of your other tasks were a lot easier or more enjoyable to accomplish then maybe that's where you should focus your efforts if you want to maximize your effectiveness.

Taken to it's logical extreme, to be the most effective person you can be you should only do the things you really excel at doing and then hire the rest out.

Post: #13

99% of people will always dream and "someday I'd like too". Many people don't read books and just follow the standard path. Saddening.

Post: #14

Good post. Reminds me of something Bo Eason said on this podcast. It was in about something he told his son about playing pro sports, and generally achieving goals and dreams...the only way you don't achieve it is if you quit.

If you set a goal, understand that the only way out, without getting there, is quitting.

Good podcast, I'd never heard of this guy before (former NFL safety and now playwright and actor).