For those of you who receive my newsletter, earlier this week I shared that I was starting a new program of personal development.
It involves 20 objectives which will be explored here. This is part 1 in my 3 part series exploring the challenge.
Goals →Hit 50%+ complete on all my one-year goals.
I have four 1 year goals, that I need to achieve by end of June 2024. This will put me ahead of schedule and make sure that I don’t get distracted away from them.
Thinking → Have written clear guides and principles for decision making. Acquire Mental Models. Improve thinking processes.
The quality of our thinking determines the quality of our lives. I know that I need to improve my decision making – and I know the value mental models and thinking processes carry.
Income → Reach a consistent income of a set multiple of my outgoings through 2+ income streams while increasing my income potential.
Live well within your means is the words echoed by philosophers and financial advisers alike. No personal finance book has ever encouraged someone to live outside their means. This goal will keep me well inside my means – while also forcing me to become more valuable and increase my earning power.
Relationships → Improve my key relationships 2-5x. Add 5 interesting people to my network.
I don’t want my relationships with the important people in my life to suffer – this is a good way to make sure that doesn’t happen. But beyond just avoiding suffering, I want to expand and improve those relationships. I also have several interesting people in my life that I enjoy speaking to – I would like to add eeven more to my network.
Wealth → Increase my net worth by a set amount. Build up short-term and long-term savings.
This should be a natural side-effect of the income goal – but it helps me keep it front of mind and make better decisions.
Reading → Read 20+ books (avg. 250+ pages). Implement 10+ non-fiction books. Create and refine a reading system.
That’s about a book every 5 days read – which should keep me busy. It also encourages me to experiment with non-fiction books I’m reading. The reading system I create should help both of these – and give me a system I can rely on in the future.
Generosity → Increase tithe to a set %. Donate a set amount. Spend a set amount on gifts.
This one is simple: I want to get better with success. I want to be more generous and this goal will help facilitate that in a trackable way.
Physical Health → Develop a clean eating practice. Improve sleep routine (7-8 hours consistently of good sleep). Get closer to a warrior physique (increase strength, flexibility, muscle mass). Increase overall energy levels.
Physical health is obviously a pillar of living well. It is on me to make sure that I’m taking care of my body, so my mind can go even further. The Warrior physique goal is related to making my body more functional for martial arts training.
Mental Health → Take care of my mental health. Develop greater patience. Increase time on the positive side of the cycle, reduce time on the negative side of cycle.
All of my goals relate to this in some way. I want to live well – and by following through on everything, I can make sure this goal is easily achieved. I think Patience is a virtue that I can always develop further.
Stoicism → Clearly live by Stoic Virtues. Read 4+ books on Stoicism. Use Daily Stoic and Daily Stoic Journal. Write about Stoicism.
Stoicism is the best personal operating system that I have ever found. I have never gone through a bad streak of time while practicing it. I want to improve my understanding, and share my learnings. Most of all – I want to clearly live by the Stoic Virtues so that I live well.
Value → Increase my value to others by acquiring skills, knowledge, and resources.
There’s a quote that I’ve loved for a long time – attributed to Einstein but that may be apocryphal – that simply says: Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.
I think that if I increase my value, success will follow.
Writing → Improve my writing quality. Produce 1+ newsletter and 1+ blog post a week. Write a book.
I love to write. It’s one of my favourite things to do – but I don’t do it enough, and I’m not very good at it. This goal will help me fix that by forcing quantity and quality improvements.
Future→ Create a system to guarantee the future will be better. Use long-term thinking.
By following all of the other objectives, I will be creating a system to make sure life just keeps getting better as time goes on. Long-term thinking will help me make wiser decisions.
Learning → Improve my ability to learn. Improve my memory. Trial Rapid Skill Acquisition.
If I’m going to achieve all of these ambitions things, I’m going to need to learn. a lot – this is the perfect trial by fire to improve both my learning and my memory.
Manliness → Practise the 7 virtues (Manliness, Courage, Industry, Resolution, Self-reliance, Discipline, Honour).
The 7 virtues are stolen directly from Manvotionals by Brett and Kate McKay. These 7 virtues will be important for me to succeed in life but will also make me the man that I want to become.
Productivity → Execute on Index Cards. Reach my peak productivity. Improve my time management. Take effective actions.
A study of my journals showed that there were common threads between my most productive periods. I’ll tie these threads together and make sure that my productivity is at a peak. This will help me win at the challenge with room to spare if done right.
Projects → Complete 3+ interesting projects.
I want to get back into the habit of completing the things that I start. I also want to remember the law of diminishing intent: The longer we have an idea that we don’t action, the less likely we will action it.
I want to take three (or more) projects from idea to completion.
Ideas → Overcome resistance and beat procrastination to action / experiment with 100+ ideas. Produce 1000+ ideas.
My idea lists have been a great help to me over the years – and I want to do the most important things with them: create and action.
100+ ideas actioned will be a great boost (whether experiments, habits, books, etc). Having another 1000+ produced will give me even more to work with.
Martial Arts → Improve 3x at BJJ. Acquire foundations of striking.
I love training BJJ and setting a very ambitious goal (improving 300%) will help me train more often and with more intelligence.
While I did boxing and Krav Maga for a period of time when younger, my focus has been on grappling lately. I want the foundations of striking to help me be more well-rounded.
Freedom → Take advantage of current freedom. Try to increase current freedom. Lay foundations for future freedom. Go on 5+ side quests / adventures.
I would say that the outcome I’m always working towards in life is autonomy. I know that I’m very fortunate with the freedom that I already have – so I want to use it and expand it. I also want to lay the foundations for complete autonomy as I age.
The 5 side quests / adventures will help me think creatively about that freedom – and is also plain fun.
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Those are the objectives for the challenge. I’m planning on providing milestone updates as time goes on.
Zachariah Lewis 