How To Prioritize Your Countless Goals And Ambitions
Do you ever struggle with having so many goals that you don’t think there is any way that you will ever accomplish them all? You’d love to write a book, create an online course, donate $1,000/month to charity, but you also want to hike the Appalachian Trail, run a marathon, and star in the next Netflix original. It seems impossible to do all of the things that you want to do, and this results in your bucket list becoming bigger and bigger with absolutely no progress. Don’t worry, you aren’t the only one. I personally struggle with this all the time.
My struggle
Years ago, I wanted to start making money online. I used to spend every second of the day researching all of the different ways that I could make my first million from the comfort of my home. I discovered that there were so many options, and they were all appealing to me. I wasn’t overwhelmed at first because I didn’t see the amount of options as an issue, I would just do them all.
That was a tragic mistake. I spent the next 6–12 months simply planning out all my different streams of income…I’d have YouTube, eBay, affiliate marketing, stocks, to name only a few of the things that I was planning on at that point. I had seen so many videos and read so many articles that stressed the fact that you HAVE TO PICK ONE, BECAUSE YOU CAN’T DO THEM ALL! I thought that was a load of rubbish, so I proceeded on my path to unintentional self-destruction.
Nearly 24 months had passed now, and I had still not gotten passed the planning stage, or at the most, the very beginning of a couple projects. I had chosen not to listen to the advice that you can’t do everything at once, and that was a terrible mistake. I had gotten so caught up in all of my goals that I had failed to reach any of them, and I still laugh at myself for that today.
I’m convinced that I’m not the only one who struggles with prioritizing goals, ambitions, and interests in life, so today, I’m going to share a system (that works for me) to help you find out what you truly value, and what ambitions/interests you should actually pursue.
5/25 system for prioritizing
I’m going to share with you how to use the 5/25 system for prioritizing, and what it is.
The 5/25 system for prioritizing is something I heard of from YouTuber Thomas Frank. I used the system, and I found it to be extremely helpful for me to get my priorities straight. Basically, this system allows you to decide which of your goals you are going to pursue. Here’s how it works.
The system
- Write down your top 25 goals of ambitions (in all areas of your life) on a single piece of paper
- From that list you are going to identify the 5 goals that you would like to achieve the most, and highlight them
- Take the 5 highlighted goals, and write them on a separate piece of paper
- FORGET ABOUT THE OTHER 20 GOALS
- Only focus on the 5 goals in the second piece of paper
Let me explain.
How and Why does this work?
The basic idea behind this system is to get a written list of the things you want to accomplish, and then determine which ones to focus on first. You might be asking “Why shouldn’t you try and accomplish them all?” The answer is, you should…but not all at the same time, and here’s why. Have you ever tried to do too many things at the same time? Of course, everybody has. How’d that work out for you?
Remember that time where you tried to carry just one more thing, and then you dropped everything? Or the time when you were driving and you just had to send a quick text, and then you crashed the car? We have proven to ourselves that we can’t concentrate on too many things at once and still execute them properly. That’s the key.
The 5/25 system for prioritizing is effective for this very reason. It shows you what you value (the 25), then what you value most (the 5), and from there you know what you need to focus on achieving.
Conclusion
So, after having read this article, you need to take 10–15 minutes to write down your goals and ambitions. Go through them, and once you get your top 5, you are ready to start the process of achieving them (I’ll release an article explaining the best guideline when setting goals to make them more achievable tomorrow).
Remember not to get overwhelmed by your countless goals and ambitions, but instead follow this system, and get ready to finally GET YOU GOALS ACCOMPLISHED!
Be sure to follow me @Johnny’s Two Cents for new articles coming all the time.
Until next time,
Johnny
