Setting goals is easy, but prioritizing them is hard.
Humans suck at properly weighing what we need to achieve our goals.
We take on too much, skip steps, and often, as a result, we give up.
Here’s one way to do it.
This week, we’re re-prioritizing our lives.
If you’re anything like me you have a ton of goals.
Unfortunately, compulsive goal setting can be a major roadblock to actually achieving goals.
However, instead of listing them we’re going to categorize and compare them with a simple pyramid structure.
(Think a little likeMaslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but for your goals.)
By the end you’ll have weeded out unnecessary steps and ditched goals you don’t really care about.
Consider this a system of life designing that helps you question assumptions and figure out what you really want.
Here’s how I divided the different goals up.
Nearly everything above this bottom level should help you to one day complete these goals.
Write in the goals that will truly matter to you in 20 years.
It might be something like: live happily into your 90’s or become the CEO of a company.
Say your primary goal is to still be healthy and mobile in your 90’s.
Level 3: Short Term Goals
Think of short term goals as weeks or months out.
Consider goals like: finish a drawing, build a deck addition, or cut cookies from your diet.
The important part to remember is that these goals are short term, not short-sighted.
These aren’t quite the same as short-term goals because they’re to form a habit.
Say one of your primary goals is to lower your daily stress level.
This could be as simple as cleaning the bathroom, or making a phone call.
When you have too many goals conflicting with each other your attention is shifted too often.
Trim away junk goals to get things done and find an actionable path.
In that way it works a lot like theold food guide pyramid.
Let’s get rid of everything that doesn’t play nice together.
Start at the bottom of your pyramid and draw lines up through goals that match each other.
For instance, at the bottom in your primary goals you might have “Publish a novel.”
The line should move through each level and hit one or two different goals along the way.
Do this with all your goals moving upwards through the pyramid.
When you’re done you’ll probably have a few outliers scattered about.
Ask yourself a couple questions about them: Why do I want this?
Does this relate to anything else I want?
If you don’t have a good answer, cut them from the list.
If you want to keep goals then focus them to help you with another goal.
You might be surprised at how many unnecessary steps you give yourself.
As an example, here’s what I did for one of my goals.
The primary goal at the bottom is: make and publish a video game.
When I saw all this in one image I realized I made it impossible for myself.
I looked at each level and cut away everything I knew I wouldn’t do.
Did I really need to learn programming?
No, because I know plenty of people who do it.
Nope, I know people who do that as well.
Instead of learning five new skills I reduced it one goal: work with people I know.
It’s time to get started on accomplishing your goals.
Thankfully your pyramid should already be filled with specifics so it’s just about management now.
Planning out the process depends on how you like to do things.
Find a system that works for you and get to it.
This is a one-time exercise that isn’t about constant organization.
Title photo byOlivier Le Moal(Shutterstock).
