Sometimes, a little switch in perspective is all you need to go from “Yes, I want this.” to “HELL YEAH, LET’S FUCKING GO!” This literally happened when I was thinking and planning for my goal of making a million dollars.
The other day, I was listing out all the new things I got to pick up and learn from scratch:
- Programming
- Marketing
- Ethical wealth creation
- Wealth management
- Habit formation as a skill
- Luck as a skill
- Lifestyle design
- Health, fitness and sleep
- Deep work and productivity
I was thinking…since I got to learn so many new things for this $1mil goal anyway, what if I framed this goal as a series of learning projects centered around self-growth?
How do I learn my way towards $1mil?
When I asked that question, I immediately felt a surge of inspired excitement and enthusiasm rising up from my belly. I loved learning. I love everything about personal growth - the methods, the experience, the journey. This time, this perspective on my goal felt way different, because for some time, I’d always felt that something was off about the way I framed my goal:
“I will earn $1mil ARR by 1st Jan 2021. In return, I will work on my indie products diligently, adhere to a habit system, and earn at least $83,333/month (or $83/month for 12 months from 1000 customers).”
Something was lacking. It felt like “Yes, I want this.” said with conviction. But to see it reframed from a learning perspective, my enthusiasm immediately shot up to “HELL YEAH, LET’S FUCKING GO!” Instead of wanting to earn my way towards $1mil, I will learn my way towards $1mil. Rephrased, the new goal should sound like:
“I will learn my way towards $1mil ARR by 1st Jan 2021. In return, I will learn how to adhere to a habit system, learn how to grow my indie products diligently, so that I can earn at least $83,333/month (or $83/month for 12 months from 1000 customers).”
Breaking it down a series of learning projects made it feel all the easier. In the book Atomic Habits, James Clear talked about temptation bundling, about how one can create new habits by bundling it with things you love to do. This is exactly that. Instead of framing, say programming, as something I need to check off and do, I can reframe it as “How do I hack this programming learning project, in a way that helps me towards $1mil?” “How do I learn habit formation?” “How do I learn luck creation?” Suddenly, it doesn’t feel like work anymore. It’s fun, it’s inspiring, it’s energizing. I’m passionate about learning and self-growth, it’s something I’m good at, and riding on this natural passion just makes that distant goal seem just within reach.
Now I can’t wait!