I recently watched a great video from Chris at Good Looking Loser (the accompanying article summarizes many points in the video, you should read and watch both). The main takeaways I got from the video were:
- You’ve got to learn to work hard before you can learn to work “smart”
- If you don’t work hard, you won’t achieve shit
- You should only work on one or two big goals at a time.
Working Hard
Hard work is the foundation of success. You can plan, brainstorm and strategize forever, but you’ll only see big results from putting in hundreds of hours of work.
You can see great gains in the gym as a newbie after a few weeks, but if you really want to get big, strong, lean, fast, or whatever your goal is, it’ll take dozens, upon dozens of workouts spread over months (or years) to get there.
I’ve been going to the gym twice per week consistently for several months, and while I was maintaining my physique, while making minor improvements, I wanted more and I knew there was no substitute for going to the gym more often.
I recently started going four times per week, following Victor Pride’s Body of a Spartan program. While I’ve only been doing it for two weeks, I can see definite improvement in the size and definition of my arms and chest. The difference between being static and making progress in this case was increasing my gym time from three to six hours per week.
Limit Your Goals
Guys that are passionate about improving themselves will often set many goals, overestimating their energy and focus, while understimating the time and hard work required to achieve them.
I’m guilty of this and its reached a point where I have to recognize that meaningful progress on my goals means setting aside or at least downscaling my other goals for the time being.
In his video Chris reminded me that big goals are full-time commitments. He recommends only focusing on one big goal at a time if you are also working full-time, or two big goals maximum if you don’t have a day job.
Too Many Goals
I’ve made progress on all of my goals, but honestly I’m not satisfied with what I’ve achieved with any of them. I think my standards are higher than most people I know, and though they may think I’m too hard on myself, but I don’t judge myself by other people’s standards.
Some of the goals I have for myself include: completing my 300 page PhD dissertation, earning an income from my websites which will cover my living expenses, meeting and dating a cool girlfriend(s), having visible abs, and visiting two countries outside of Poland.
I have other goals on the backburner, but you can see that I’m asking a lot of myself within the time frame of roughly one year.
Since finishing my PhD ties in to my other website (not revealing it for now) and it was the ostensible reason for leaving my job and moving to Poland, it is my primary goal. I’ve written just about 20% of the dissertation, and if I focus on it I can complete it within a year. This would mean writing about a page per day for most of that period.
Earning money from my websites is another important goal, because it will help cover my living expenses, alongside my savings and investment income. I’m in a relatively comfortable situation now because I have about two years of savings, but obviously this won’t last and something like a medical emergency can always come up and change things quickly.
Focusing
So my two big goals are:
1. Complete my 300-page PhD dissertation by April 1, 2016
2. Make my websites profitable to earn $1000 per month by April 1, 2016.
I still want to meet attractive women to date, get in great shape and travel, but I realize that I can’t do everything at once. I’ve spent a lot of time daygaming with mixed results. I’m sure it will get better with time, but for now its going on the backburner. I’ll approach women opportunistically, but hours long daygame sessions will be few and far between.
I’ll continue to go to the gym regularly, continue juicing and watch my diet, but getting in the best shape of my life is a big goal. I may just have to be content with very good shape for now, as far as it’ll support my health and energy to pursue goals 1 and 2.
I’m stretching things with those primary goals, since one website or just the PhD are massive goals in and of themselves, but I think I can handle it and make adjustments as necessary. What’s needed most is the discipline to focus on these two goals and avoid any other commitments or distractions. I have the luxury of a lot of freedom right now, I have to use it wisely.
Mike Cernovich wrote a great post “Become Obsessed to the Point of Madness” that I’ve read several times, but haven’t taken to heart. These two goals are what’ll take me to the next level of my life and its time to upgrade them from hobbies that I spend inconsistent time on to obsessions.
Have any of you been able to achieve one or more major goals on top of working full time? What did you have to change in your life to reach what you wanted most in life?
