Goal Setting

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 I wonder if the cascading type of goal setting recommended by Steve Kotler in his The Art of Impossible aligns with what Burkeman suggests in his Four Thousand Weeks.

I think it does.  Kotler suggests tiered goal setting to live a fulfilling life by conquering what he calls small I and Upper case Iimpossible.  Small I impossible things are small scaled challenges while the upper case I impossible are massive things like a single individual organizing a space expedition.

For Kotler, there are three tiers when it comes to setting goals: massively transformative purpose; hard high goals; Clear goals.

Massively transformative purpose could be to write books that transform lives.  Besides being a giant goal, such a purpose acts as an activities filter.  Whatever aligns with it is embraced.  Whatever isn’t is set aside or procrastinated.  This keeps limited amount of things on our plate. 

Limiting the number of items on our plate is indeed what Burkeman recommends.  Due to the finitude of life, we can only handle so few things.

The next level of goals are hard high goals.  If writing books is my massively transformative purpose, picking up on the craft through lessons, writing and publishing books are examples.  By doing this, I am admitting to myself that I need to focus on important things to achieve my goals.  I only have limited time so I should work on these goals that are meaningful for me.

The next level is setting clear goals.  The emphasis is on clear.  Write a three hundred word paragraph for my book...that is a clear goal.  Write and publish one blog a day.  That is another clear goal.  I have to limit myself to x number of goals per day.  I believe this frame of mind makes finitude liberating.

This tiered goal setting is not about cramming in productive hours each day.  It is more about setting massively transformative purpose that drives a meaningful life focused on serving mankind.



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