Quote: (09-06-2015 10:57 PM)PolymathGuru Wrote:
I am currently unsatisfied with my life. Reflecting back on my life to date, I have to realize I have not done enough to improve myself. It might be the lack of self confidence. Maybe it is the lack of human capital. Or perhaps I have not enough to address my past failures. Regardless, I am dedicating a year to self improvement. The main feature of the tasks I am focusing on are all things a single human can control themselves. What is great about my tasks is they are achievable dominantly via effort. Here are the areas I will focus for my self-improvement in one year:
Learn to speak or read and write in 10 different languages
Lose 84lbs(38.1kg)
Read and review 1 book a week
Become a better computer programmer
Become faster and more precise at mathematics
Some of these goals I have already started to put effort into performing.
These are some fairly difficult goals to have. I may not end up achieving all of them. However, they do set for a fantastic target to where I should be heading in a one year period. Even if I only accomplish 20% of what I set out to do, I’ll be much better off then where I am starting.
Why start a thread about this? It helps keep a track on what goals I have achieved. It subjects me to public scrutiny.
I'll maintain a blog on any additional events. I will use this thread to maintain more major events.
Firstly, it's great you're deciding to do this.
Here is some constructive public scrutiny:
This is not proper goal setting. This is an expression of your wish to be different only. It won't achieve anything and will only make you feel worse this time next year. You have to convert this wish into will by setting proper goals.
Goals must be SMART -
specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound.
The first goal isn't achievable. You'll be lucky to pull off one. You cannot say 'even if I only do 20%', because that defeats the purpose of goals. It causes you to not really believe in your goals. It makes them
wishes, which guarantees demotivation and ultimately failure. The goal
must be realistically achievable.
I might suggest: 'Learn language X to a level sufficient to pass language exam Y'.
The second goal is OK. It can be improved though by breaking up the time period into stages, and stating the specific weight rather than the loss. I.e. 'After 3 months I will weigh X kg. After 6 months I will weight Y kg.' etc.
The third goal is OK, but doesn't seem to have a strong result-focus. I assume it's to increase general knowledge? Is there another reason beyond that? If so, tack that onto the end of the goal.
The fourth and fifth goals aren't specific, or measurable, and thus not achievable either. Here are some good examples of powerful goals to replace them:
- Learn the computer languages X,Y,Z to a level sufficient to publish at least one fully functional mobile app / web app / computer app using each, before 12 months is up.
- Raise my proficiency in mathematics to the point where I can solve problem X, under a time of Y, and to a precision level of Z, before 12 months is up (use actual Year and Month).
Those goals are solid because you know specifically what you have to achieve, you know how to measure it (the app is online and working or it is not), you tailor it to be achievable (i.e. if you worked your guts out it is certain you'd succeed), the result is clear (so you can pat yourself on the back when you achieve it), and the time-bound is known.
After you do that, you need to draw up a schedule of actions you will take for each, that will realistically lead to the goals being achieved. For example, for the weight loss, your schedule could be:
- Preparation: Download MyFitnessPal, locate a gym, and choose a basic and credible fitness regime.
- Initial action: document all food intake on MyFitnessPal for 1 week (sets normal baseline), visit the gym for two familiarization sessions.
- Actions for first 2 weeks: reduce calorie intake per day to 75% of the daily average recorded in the Initial Action week, 2 gym sessions of 45 minutes each week.
- Actions until goal, each following week: reduce calorie intake per day to 50% of the daily average recorded in the Initial Action week, 4 gym sessions of 45 minutes
I think if you do all that, then your plan for the next 12 months will look a lot more real, doable, and exciting.