The 5 most important goals upon which my current Life Vision rests.
Recently I have been thinking about my vision for life. What are the things I want to achieve and why? During the Lifebook process, I recently went through, I looked at 12 aspects of life. For each aspect, I wrote a premise, vision, purpose, and strategy. This resulted in a ~130-page long document filled with things I want to accomplish. To make sense of this vision, I will need to break these down into actionable goals.
This process starts by identifying the most important goals. These are your foundational goals. Then you will narrow the goals even further. You will identify your annual goals. What are you going to do every calendar year? What am I willing to commit to, this quarter? Month? Week? This day?
Your day is based on your week. Your week on your month, etc. This will make sure everything is connected since every goal is based upon my life vision.
You can picture it like a funnel. A funnel is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The top is your life vision everything you want to achieve. The bottom is your actual time you get to work on it.
This will allow you to work on your most high-leverage goals. Consider the Pareto principle. 80% of your results will come from 20% of your investments. Focus on the 20% that will get you the most results.
Below I have listed the 5 most important goals upon which
my current Life Vision rests:
#1 Be in harmony
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony” — Mahatma Ghandi
The first goal is based on this quote by Gandhi. This goal consists of multiple parts. The first being: getting a clear understanding of who I am, what I want and why. The second is: communicating who I am. The third part is about acting on who I want to be.
1. Who I am, what I want and why?
This to me is about developing a world view. A world view is about finding out what your morals and philosophy are as an individual and how that relates to the world around you. This will make the way forward a lot more clear. You will know how to make moral decisions. How to act. How to be intentional. Not to move in any direction, but move in the right direction.
I think there is this weird state we all have operating on old memories and we are operating on things we read but we haven’t retained. As soon as you start transferring that whole messy cloudy area of knowledge into explicit knowledge, you are going to start seeing a lot more in yourself and what’s out there for you to get.
2. Communicating who I am
Truthfulness to me is very important. However, it is something I don’t practice all the time. I lie occasionally because I don't have a clear world view yet. I can also be scared of what others might think about me. This is mainly because in the past I didn’t use any form of introspection. I just went with the flow of life. Following the vision of others.
Telling yourself the truth is a great habit to develop, and asking questions and talking things through with yourself can be the way to establish this habit. Writing has helped out a lot for me. Setting aside 20 minutes each day to just write about how I view the world.
3. Acting on who I want to be
One of the virtues Socrates valued is magnanimity. Which doesn’t translate well to English (a great soul is a literal translation). It is to have a high sense of what you are capable of and to execute that vision. You want to understand who you are and what you are capable of. Then you also want to act on what you are capable of.
The greatest measure of true intelligence is how intelligently you live your life. It’s about not only about being intelligent but also about showing intelligence. The way you communicate equals your contribution. Your brilliant ideas lose their value if you can’t communicate them. It’s often said: “Knowledge is power”. I believe that saying should be: “Knowledge is potential power”.
#2 Live a Eudaemonic Life
A life of Eudaemonia is a life of striving. It’s a life of pushing yourself to your limits and finding success. A eudaemonistic life will be full of the happiness that comes from achieving something really difficult, rather than just having it handed to you. This means you are never done improving. You are constantly setting new goals and trying to achieve those.
Choosing to live life like this also means you will be facing disappointment and failure. It doesn’t mean the sweat life of rainbows and cupcakes. It means the sweat pleasure of sinking in your bed after an exhausting day. It is the satisfaction of knowing you accomplished a lot and that you pushed yourself to be the very best person you could be.
The Law of Equivalent Exchange
Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is alchemy’s first law of Equivalent Exchange.
I truly believe that to be happy, one should earn her life. It is a simple principle that has guided me to feel fulfillment in my life. The principle is simple “don’t stop working until you have earned it”. Imagine how great your break would feel if you would finish the thing you dreaded doing. The freedom it would give you. Remove distractions, work hard, do the thing you need to do and gain control over your life.
Work until you have something to show for. Don’t waste your time on things that give you instant gratification, you’ll end up feeling guilty pursuing. Experience fulfillment, accomplishment, proudness, the true treasures of life.
Grit, the elusive virtue that allows people to do what they love, find a purpose in life and, most importantly, stick with it long enough for them to truly flourish. It is the combination of passion and perserverance.
#3 What is the Future of Work?
Work is something we do for a large portion of our lives. It is the one thing I have worked on a lot. It provided me with something to be proud of. Something to get up for each day and little by little gets better in. I have learned about user-interface design and about programming. Lately, I have been thinking about what the future holds in store. What is the future for me personally? What is the future of UI design & development? What is the future of work in general, with things like globalization and AI becoming more popular paradigms of work?
Recently I was talking to my uncle about how I view the future of work. I mentioned the concepts of The 4-hour workweek and Linchpin. The 9–5, an old-fashioned concept that originated during the industrial revolution. The idea of not paying people to warm a seat, not for their value.
Because of the uncertainty of not knowing what is next for me, my craft or work in general, I have been focussing on meta-skills. Skills like learning to learn. The ability to learn anything you want with the right tools.
My uncle used to work for a bank. He mentioned that with his small team he could build houses or design kitchens, connect water pipes, own a successful farm or lead a national bank. They were Linchpins, and indispensable. They had great soft and meta-skills.
They had premises, visions, purposes, and strategies for life. They were artists, entrepreneurs and life long learners.
There are people however that like to have no say in their life. They just like to flow in the wind. Wherever the wind blows, they will go. It is a direction you go without much effort. It is comfortable there. You will have security. Go to work, do the things you are told, get money, go home and repeat.
I, however, want to control the direction of the wind. I don’t want to be tied to one job. Either I make space for myself and become indispensable or I will express myself in a different medium. I want to be able to learn everything. I want to be flexible in my position. To become better in comprehending the future for me, my craft, industry, and work in general. I want to feel free and do what I love.
#4 Live a qualitative and quantitive life
My health has become a great focus. When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.
I want to experience a qualitative and quantitive life. Qualitative, to have a strong, fit and healthy body. Quantitative, to experience longevity. I want to stay young at 70 not old at 50.
This requires me to pay every day, not later. Those who think they have not the time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. Pay now, meaning going to the gym, eating healthy thinking about the future self on a daily basis. Tomorrow, you will be exactly who you are today. The rest of your life is a future projection of who you are today. If you pay today, tomorrow will be different. If you don’t pay today, you will pay for the rest of your life.
5# To reach the other side of complexity
“I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity.”
In life, I want to be able to focus on a few aspects I truly care about. Career is one that I don’t mind to spend a lot of time on. Learning new things is something that I value greatly. Hanging out with friends, going on adventures.
The simplicity on the other side of complexity means that you have invested enough time in something that becomes easier, more simplistic. For example, I don’t want to decide every time I go to the gym on what exercises I will exercise. That is something that can be easier by creating a workout routine.
I don’t want to worry every day about what I will eat during the day. Every week I prepare my meals so it saves time and worry. I also know I have meals that I enjoy and are nutritious.
For this foundational goal, I will need to invest time and money, do the research and set-up strategies. I will need to consider what I am willing to spend time on and for what things I want to reach simplicity.
