Here is the complete transcript of the podcast
On the podcast today, I’m answering a timely question that has come in from a longtime listener of the podcast. Darren says Srini. I’m just done listening to your interview with Sunil Agarwal, an incredible Podcast. I’m also a student of success. And I also set goals at the beginning of every year. I’ve been doing that for over 11 years now. And I’ve also studied all the books that you have referred to in your podcasts. And thank you. Thank you. My question is, I set goals, several of which, I’m not able to accomplish. This is the end of the year, as you pointed out, and a New Year is coming up, and I want to know from you, what is the mindset you use to set your goal? And how many of those goals if there are more than one that you end up accomplishing? The phenomenal question, a timely question. As I said, Darren, first of all, thank you. And so I do not accomplish all my goals. Hence, I do not set a lot of goals. And what I set what I accomplished, doesn’t matter. What matters is the mindset, you pointed out very correctly the mindset through which I approach goals. So I’m going to share with you what I use. I don’t think this is from any book, this is just about me making up a weird little philosophy that has worked for me very nicely. Hopefully, this is going to work for you, hopefully, and everybody else who’s listening, please give it a try. See what you think. And let me know.
Okay, so I use what is called the power of 20. Don’t ask me how I arrived at 20. Just follow my approach here. And then you’ll figure this out, hopefully, you’ll figure out is how I figured out this one, but I use what is called the power of quantity. So what it means is I’m going to do one 2% of everything that I want to do as a part of my yearly goal setting. So let’s say, for example, I want to lose weight. So here is my mindset, I want to lose 20% of my body weight, I’m 200 pounds, and I want to lose 20%, let’s say that’s my goal. That’s what I want to accomplish. Now, 20% of 200 pounds is 40 pounds, very simply 40 pounds, I want to lose, then the next thing is, for me to lose 40 pounds, there are many things that have to happen. The first and foremost is my intake, I want to improve my intake by 20%, or decrease, or increase while improving. Well, I think improvement is a is can play both ways. But I want to, first of all, decrease my intake by 20%. Let’s talk about decreasing the first 20% I want to decrease.
Now again, this has to work with my system. So sometimes I’m involved in nutritionist in this may be the doctor, we’re all that. But just the overall ballpark figure is 20%, I want to decrease my intake. And at the same time, I want to increase my burden by 20%. And I want to in increase my sleep quality by 20%. Something like that. So I come up with this 20 Wherever it fits, sometimes decreasing something by 20, sometimes increasing something by 20. But I want to stick with it 20%. So 20% is what I’m shooting for 40 pounds, weight loss over the next 12 months. Very simple formula. Let’s talk about let’s say weight loss is not your goal. Maybe the money you want to increase your money, and have a higher income. So the goal is a 20% increase in income. Then a sub-question or a deeper question is how to increase 20%. Well, can I add one more income stream? Can I go to the boss and ask for a raise? Or can I seek a promotion somewhere else and chain my job all these things come in and all those things will become actionable goals? Okay, so what we’re doing as a part of this is we’re trying to figure out the mindset with which we pursue an objective. And the goals that we’re going to set as a part of this objective are actionable goals. Very simple. Hopefully, I said it right now. I noted, then let’s say that money income increase is not your goal, your goal? Is his overall mental and emotional, well-being? Now, what do you need to do? So can you increase it your 20% of your meditation?
The amount of time you’re giving 20% more time to meditation 20% more time to do yoga or 20% more time to your activities outside in nature or whatever, right? Or, for that matter, sometimes people tell me I want to get rid of some relationships, some friendships, and all those things, yes, can you decrease your friends by 20% who are not contributing towards your success? Possibly, can you remove some relationships? Can you reduce your overall negative relationships by 20%? Take the 20% principle to apply to investing, then you invest 20% From the top of your income, can you invest 20% of the bottom of your income at the bottom 20%? So you are done you spent all the money you budgeted for everything that is done in have some savings? Can you take 20% of your savings and put it into some investment? Can you save 20%? Just like that into a bank account? Something like that? I started with a personal goal. And then this is a big one, the last big one which is can I start my new year with 20% of emptiness? More 20% More emptiness. So can I delete my Inbox by 20%? Can I delete my living room family room kitchen by 20% or remove whatever shreds and donate all that can empty my garage by 20%?
Now why 20% Because what I have seen is if you say 10%, it sounds very small. You say 15%. It is inconsequential, just 20% somehow resonates well with the mind. 25% is a very high 20%. There’s something about 20%. I don’t know what it is. But at least to me, maybe I’m hoping that is true with everyone because if it is true, it means a high possibility that it is true with everybody. So somehow, when I set something to 20%, I become more actionable. And I can really see this happening call me for some reason, I don’t know why. So this is the mindset with which I approach and as I said this is the objective this. And within each of these objectives or sub-objectives, and maybe sub sub-objectives, and maybe some goals below them. And those goals are actionable. So I work on them, I have a timeline for those and all the regular goal-setting stuff comes in, but you get the idea. Now, this is how I do it. And I could be totally wrong. But try this approach. In my mind also. And ideally speaking, these are not individual goals, these are all the goals I set for myself. And I should have been a little bit clear at the beginning. And I kind of kept it out so that you could figure this out. So 2020 2020 20 So 520 is there 2020 2020 20. So 20% body weight loss 40% of income, an increase of 20% in relationship redistribution, graphing relationships 20% of investments, and 40% of emptiness. So if I start doing this, now you can pick it up. And some people say I’m not in investing at all, you know, I want to add something else, of course, do it. But I did this. And I do not. I do not have a specific category for spirituality and all that they all happen as a result of this happening. They all add up to 520 percent add up to 100%. In my mind, that’s exactly not how it works. But somehow. And even if I hit an overall 10% across all of these, I’m still a winner. So clearly speaking, as I said, I do not attain or accomplish all the goals, but I’m really working hard to set extreme goals and trying to see if I can push myself.
Okay, I hope I answered your question thoroughly. If it is, let me know. And for everybody else who is listening, I hope this is helpful. I hope that’s all for now. Have a wonderful day, night or evening wherever you are, and have a great start to the week. If you’re listening to this on Monday, then November 14, tomorrow on the podcast. Let’s talk about that for a second tomorrow. I have Andrew remember I promised Andrew? Andrew called in with a question. And that was a couple of days ago. Or last week I believe, not a couple of days last week. entry use interview. We recorded that early morning, Saturday. And it’s now it’s coming out tomorrow. So tomorrow technically is a big day for me because this interview is already recorded. It’s coming out to you tomorrow. So I’m going to take a day off tomorrow while you listen to the interview, and I will catch up with you on Wednesday morning, live on the podcast here. Okay, that’s all for now. Have a wonderful day. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye now.