Think in Decades, Act in Days

Most people don’t set future goals. They don’t figure out what they want to do with their life. They don’t find what they want and go get it.

Instead, most people think about the next few days, maybe even weeks, and then take forever to get anything done.

This slowly erodes any chance of achieving anything by wasting your time, one day at a time.

Meanwhile, a small group of people are planning the next 20 years of their lives and slowly making progress on their goals. Within 5 years, they’ve achieved more then you ever will. They move fast. They move now.

They’re busy building empires while you’re wondering what to have for dinner.

The Fantasy Trap

You can’t just go find a notebook and jot down what you want and expect it to manifest itself in your life.

In contradiction to what most people want you to think, you actually need to act to achieve what you want.

Here’s what never works: Long time planning without short-term execution.

I’ve seen people plan out their million-dollar exit when they haven’t even developed a product. People with elaborate 10-year plans who can’t even stick to a simple habit.

But what’s even worse is short-term action without long time vision.

Busy work without a goal. You might as well go sit in a park. At least then you’d get some vitamin D.

It’s an infinite hamster wheel with zero benefits.

The question is: how do you think 10, 20 years out without slipping into endless planning?

How to Actually Set Goals

Start with where you want to be in 10 years.

Not where you think you should be, or where you think people will want you to be. Where YOU want to be.

Ask yourself:

• Who will I be surrounded by?

• Where will I be?

• What does my day look like?

• How much money do I make?

• What impact do I have?

It’s important to be specific here. Vague goals result in vague results.

“I want to be rich” means nothing. How much money do you want? Is it cash or net worth? Does it matter if it’s in assets?

“I want $100k in savings and a $1.1M house on at least 50 acres in a farmable state” is much more useful. You can work backwards with that.

The Crux of Goals: Action

Here’s the trick to achieve your goals: Act.

Every. Single. Day.

Not just when you feel like it. Not just when you have motivation.

What separates the 1% from everyone else is that they can act when they don’t feel like it. They make progress on their goals rain or shine, whether the world likes them or not.

Small progressive changes result in a huge impact over time.

If you became a 1% better person every day, how different would you be after a year? Not 10% different, not even 5%. Just 1% different.

After a year, you would be a completely different person. Unrecognizable.

And here’s the crazy thing: it wouldn’t even take a year. Just 100 days.

1 post a day becomes an audience.

1 page a day becomes a book.

1 pushup a day becomes a fitness habit.

The problem is that people want instant results without the work.

They want 10,000 followers when they don’t post.

They want a fit body when they never go to the gym.

They want to be creative when they don’t practice anything creative.

The magic isn’t a single action. There is no shortcut.

It takes hundreds of days, sometimes even thousands, to achieve anything worth showing off.

The first day you do something there won’t be a difference.

The hundredth day you do something there won’t be a difference.

But the thousandth day? You’ve achieved your goal.

Dream Far, Act Now

Most people will never act.

They prefer comfort over achieving their goals.

They think small and move slow.

They wait till the “time is right”

They mistake motion for progress.

Don’t be most people.

Plan your 10 year goals.

Plan your 5 year goals.

Plan your 1 year goals.

Plan this month’s goals.

Plan this week’s goals.

Plan today’s goals.

Start big and work backwards.

That’s the only way to achieve anything noteworthy.

See you on the next one.

-Luke