Thursday, January 24, 2013

10 Goals And New Community


Getting passion/core values and your vision is something I don't have a lot of experience with myself (because I had it sorted "presystem.") Something I DO have experience with (and lots of it) is goal writing. Daily goal writing.

The Goal of Goal Writing

I'll be honest with you. If you have a clear big or small vision, that can almost be goal enough if you have the drive and motivation to accomplish it. For a long time I told myself and people that I was going to go to China and learn Chinese. I never wrote it down as a "goal." It's what I was going to DO. I didn't know how, I didn't need to know how, it's all I thought about so any time I thought of something that might take me closer to that goal, I tried it. Anytime I saw or heard something that would (in my mind) bring me a little closer. I acted on it.

I didn't end up in China, but I did end up living in Taiwan for 5 years and learning Chinese. It wasn't done with the most style and grace but... it was done. :)

The goal of that story is to point out the goal of goal writing. It's to gain unwavering clarity in what you want to do so it stays on your mind and you get things done to take you closer to the result you want. That's it.

Don't Let Your Goals Fool You!

This system is still very much in beta, but something I learned from being able to look back at over a year's worth of daily goal writing (see video above) is that, if you're not careful, your goals can start to drive you instead of you driving your goals! Different people will have different experiences of course, but my tendency to "think big" (aka unrealistically) coupled with a tendency to get a little OCD about a thing (like a goal for example) would take me off course at times. The solution?

I have a couple things I'm adding to and testing. One is coming up with your core values/personal noble cause. These will act as an anchor to keep your goals from drifting off to sea. Something else will be discussed in the next video. It's essentially remembering to stay grounded in the "present." Don't let short or long term goals get you moving too fast, thinking too much or stressing yourself out. There is ALWAYS time to stop and smell the roses. In fact, you should make it a habit.

Finally, having someone else to discuss them with is helpful, better yet...

A Pwning Life Community

I started a private little community a last week and I've been journaling inside of it for the last 6 days. It's been a really useful tool. I've already started discussing (mostly with myself... lol) my own passions and core values. These are all things you should be doing with or without a community, but if you were inclined to do it among a small group of people doing the same, shoot me an email. pwninglife | at | gmail.com.

10 Goals in 12 Months

I like how I didn't even explain the step yet. That's OK though. I'm just getting them all out in a conversational style right now. The way the 10 goals in 12 months works is... you write 10 goals you'd like to complete within a year. You're suppose to write them in the first person present (so like you've completed them already).

My addition to that is you should spend at least a week or two writing the goals so they can "normalize." They'll change a lot from the first day to the last day. Also, while listening to a book from Brian Tracy he said to do it every day if you want to "super charge" things. From my own personal experience... I don't think this is necessary. Once you have a clear set, the only thing to do on top of that is pick out the most important one and try to get something done everyday to move you closer to that one. There's no need to go BALLS TO THE WALL about it (unless of course that's what you want to do. :) ) You can "renormalize" your goals whenever you feel the need to.

Here are the goals I posted to the community on the first day and today so you can get an idea of how they fluctuate.

Day 1


1. I have my own place on the lower east side of Milwaukee.
2. I earn enough money to stop receiving SSI payments.
3. I earn enough money to live on from teaching taichi.
4. I have done at least one taichi seminar out of state.
5. The Pwning Network has 20 active members testing the system.
6. I have the time to train and practice every day (taichi/BJJ, meditate).
7. The MilTownKlan drops it's first album.
8. We finish the first draft of the Pwning Life eBook/system.
9. I attend Master Wang's Seminar or visit him for private lessons.
10. I attend Patrick Kelly's seminar.

Day 6



1. I net $2,500/month from working and my marketing consulting business.
2. I have a job that I'm passionate about and get to use and learn marketing skills.
3. I helped @thenewloud reach his monetary goal for the studio.
4. I teach a full class of taichi push hands student each Sunday.
5. I have a dedicated group of private students.
6. I visited Patrick Kelly with Shane.
7. I made plans to host a push hands competition in partnership with the Taiwan Push Hands Association.
8. I have a completed Pwning Life eBook.
9. I have an active pwning network membership site.
10. I have all paper debts paid.

I was staying away from assigning a dollar amount to anything, but I took the dive today. You'll see that the general theme is mostly the same, but a lot of the language and focus has changed. Instead of thinking about the fact that I'm getting SSI, I switched my focus to finding a job (which would lead to me not being on SSI). I've already found 2 marketing clients to work with and I have a job interview of sorts tomorrow when I'm back in Milwaukee. And I got a place to live sorted now, so it isn't a priority.

What's also become abundantly clear is that I'm focused on being independent more than messing with my entrepreneurial stuff (that wasn't always true in the past). It's also clear that the next thing I want to focus on is building my taichi school, with Pwning Life trailing behind that.

Knowing this has made me spend a little time each day on something with the job hunt (get clearer about the job I want, work on the resume, look for companies I might be interested in working for, etc.)

Questions, comments? You know what to do. :)

2 comments:

  1. my "passion" blog post will be used as a reference whenever I think I've lost my focus on what it is I'm seeking in the present. I know it happens, so it's good to have some guidelines when I need them. ;)

    On what to complete first or the most important, I've noticed that I tend to do things in order (old to new). Tends to mess with things that are needed ASAP, but I otherwise find myself in binds when I keep thinking on how overdue a task is. A needed change, or something I should continue and evolve as necessary?

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    1. Well... I feel like it can be both. If you do the 10 goals thing and have clearly identified what you "should" be working on, but you also have a backlog of things you want to complete (and have a system of plugging your way through them), I'd say do both.

      Everyday work to advance the thing(s) which you've identified as crucial to getting you feeling balanced, while at the same time doing what you've always done to catch up on your projects.

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