#410 : 6th Day of 30DLBL Challenge ~ Goals

Today task is to set my 5 years goals, that should be breakdown into 3 years and 1 year goals, that in the end will support the success of achieving the ultimate 5 years goals.

Goals

After reading celes blog about today’s task, i find something interesting between goals and dreams. It is said that goals are dreams with deadlines, which means we have to finish it in a limited time that someone set (and it’s better to have ourselves set our deadlines for the goals, not someone else).. Well, i think, the deadline is good, it is to force us to give the best and use our maximum potential to grab our goals (if you really-really chase for it)..

But, please be careful to set your goals. Why ? You need to think the reasonable and strong reason behind it, so that you will always have a background and motivation to keep on them, and then set a possible and reasonable limit/deadline that logically you will be able to achieve it. If your goals unreasonable, maybe at first you think you will be able to achieve it, but after some periods of time, it’s likely to happen that you are stressed because now you think your goals is unreachable.

For example, if you are currently don’t have experience in music, but your goal is to be a great world-class guitarist like Paul McCartney (please CMIIW) in a year, well, i think, it’s kinda impossible (although we often hear nothing is impossible). Why ? because you don’t have any experience at all, and your goal is a world class professional, which we know he is talented and spent so many hours to be like that (Outliers stated that the Beatles at least have 10,000 hours to practice). So, rather than you stress out later on, i would prefer to expand your deadline if you still want to keep your goal. It’s not the goal which is impossible, but your time limit make it impossible to be reached.

Me, personally, in doing this task, think that my goals are quite much. But, some of them are related to each other quite close, so I am not too worry about them, and would like to keep them (and of course, to expand them in the next 5 years)..

Why Do We Need Goals ?

If you have decided your life vision and mission, then completed with your values of life, your life is already have direction to your ultimate goals (vision). But, i believe that if you directly target your life vision (in vision board), absolutely you will find big obstacles. That’s why you need to set some goals, that is the smaller manifestation of your giant vision.

I have been taught in management subject, that when we build our company from zero, the first thing is to set the vision and mission statement of the company, then the values that are the ideal condition of the company. After that, of course, we will have to make our plans/goals, often divided into long, medium, and short term goals. So, as you chase your vision, you will have many smaller goals as steps toward your vision, because it’s easier to complete many small tasks (which really clear and concrete), rather than single huge tasks (which sometimes unclear and abstract).

How to Set Your Goals ?

So, how to set your goals ? well, as i’ve read previously, there is an acronym SMART, specific (clear and specific goals), measurable (can be measured with some measurement. For example, rather than saying you want to be slimmer, just said you want to reduce 5 kg), attainable (make sure your goals are logically doable,not impossible to be achieved), relevant (relevant to your bigger image of your goals, your life mission, purpose), time-bound (limited in specific period of time).. Those 5 criteria is said to be applied to your goals, so that you will have a good and achievable goals.

But of course, beside that, you will need to evaluate your goals over and over, since our life dynamically change. You have to make sure that your goals is appropriate for your life mission and vision.

6th Task – Set My Goals

here is the complete task from Celes, (just copy paste some here)

Set Your 5 Year Goals

1. Start on a new page of your 30DLBL workbook. Write down the date today.
2. On top, write “My 5-Year Goals”.
3. Look at your ideal life (Day 2) and Vision Board (Day 3). Based on your ideal life, what do you want to achieve in 5 years? Crystallize them in your goals.
4. Be specific. What exactly do you want to achieve in 5 years’ time?
   1. For example, saying “I want to be very rich” is not as specific as saying “I want to earn $20k passive income a month, with $200k savings in my bank account”. Saying “I want to be a successful writer” is not the same as saying “I want to be the #1 renowned writer in the world with 5 best sellers on Literary and Romance Novels in New York Times and Business Week”. Saying “I want to have a happy family” is not as specific as saying “I want to married to a great wife, 2 kids, one boy and one girl, living in Amsterdam”.
   2. The more specific you are, the better. Think of it as shooting a dartboard – You can’t hit the bullseye if you can’t see the markings. Similarly, you can’t get to your goal if you’re not clear on it to begin with. Ask yourself what exactly you want, then go from there. Keep writing until it’s very clear and vivid.
5. Cover all areas. Ensure your goals cover all 10 key categories of your life wheel, like your ideal life.
6. Read the 10 principles of goal setting to ensure your goals are in line with the principles.
7. Take as much time as you need. Spend as much time and write as much as you want.

Breaking Down To 3-Year, and 1-Year Goals

After you are done, download this life goals worksheet and print it out. This is a template to fill in your 5, 3, 1 year goals.

1. 5 year goals. Fill in the 1st column with your 5 year goals from above. Once again, be specific. If the column is not enough (probably not!),  print out as many copies as you need.
2. Break down into 3 year goals. From your 5 year goals, do a break down and identify what you need to achieve in 3 years to make them happen.
3. Break down into 1 year goals. Now, break them down further. Set your 1 year goals.

My Goals

I don’t know whether my goals are too many or not, but i make it quite clear and i make sure that all of them are achievable :p..

Here is the link to my goals (5-3-1 year goals). I made it with spreadsheet application, so i think it will be easier and better to share it via Google Docs.

I group some of my goals into one, which are:

• Finish my Post Graduate Program in Computer Science, Publish a Scientific Journal/Paper with international scale in Computer Science Field : As i stated before, i want to continue my post grad study in Princeton, and do some research there, of course have my research published. Areas related to these are contribution, personal development, study.
• Publish 10 books, My novels named as one of Top 5 best sellers (for Fiction category) in my country (Indonesia), Have my novels translated in another language (English) and sold internationally : these three goals are related to my dream becoming an author. Area related to these are personal development, career.
• Have an online store, with monthly revenue ±$1000. This is related to financial aspect.
• I will participate in social communities, such as book lovers, computer science researchers, authors, etc. This is related to social aspect.

For the others, you can see completely on the link above.

I hope, all of my goals will be successfully achieved in the next 5 years, make me getting closer to my vision board.

Look forward to reading 7th task tomorrow, especially because it’s related to the 1 year goals 🙂