One: Define the long-term goal that is irrespective of how you get it. Two: Define what needs to be done/learned to get there. Three: Execute it.
Due to the relative freedom of my schedule, I get daily exposure to the ultimate question of life: What do I do with myself to get the things I want? Although I am taking some classes, they don’t take too much time to actually create a feeling of my progress coming from school. For example, when I was pursuing a Computer Science major, I had more faith in the system taking care of my education and time(as there is a clear organization of classes, extra-curricular). Now, it’s all on me: I have to define, decide, and then do the things I need to do.
Although is quite intimidating, I intentionally put myself in this state to actually figure out things for myself. For example, for the past couple of weeks, while studying a little bit on what I call Real Edu (for me it's marketing, accounting, mathematical thinking, and branding), I realized I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it is that I actually need to study rather than just consuming content.
The reason why I treat this so seriously is because
#1 There are infinite accessible educational resources for me to pursue what I want.
#2 There is a very limited time when I am young and will have an easier time learning, as well as time in general in my life.
#3 My learnings need to be directed towards my goals =things I want in life because from #2 I realize that there is really no time to waste.
So recently I came up with this framework. Really not trying to be fancy here, but this has actually made an impact on how I approach my education and other goals. Here it is:
Step 1: Define the long-term goal that is irrespective of how you get it.
What do I want? What is my goal? What am I actually pursuing long-term? What is something I want to get irrespective of how I get it (such as being wealthy, having a family, traveling, etc.)
It can also be that your goal is to actually be a certain person, such as a doctor, a creative and that is the end goal in itself, rather than a certain state of life or assets.
Step 2: Define what needs to be done/learned to get there.
What do you need to learn to get there? So often I hear my fellow classmates saying that they just want money and they choose some route to get there: be pre-med or do cs. However, more time can be put into defining the best route for you personally to the goal above. Although pre-med and cs are well-defined traditional tracks to a stable job, they might not be a good option for me. Defining these things that I need to learn is crucial. Currently, with the biz, I can be learning a million things. But I need to specify and then precisely define the crucial few areas that will maximize my strengths and have a great impact on my goal.
Step 3: Execute it.
Frankly, this one is relatively easy. So much inertia comes from a lack of faith in the profitability of what I am doing, which results in half-assed execution💩. Once the goal is defined and areas to learn are, I can just go full-on into learning and mastering those areas. Imagine being taught by a world-class expert in the field: you are just a student at this step, fully surrendering to the teacher’s expertise and knowledge. I don’t have to think about the direction and where to find resources. The teacher curates me, directing me to what I truly need and want, providing me with the needed resources, mentorship, and reasoning.
Now, with defining our life direction, it would be nice to have a guy like that but it seems that it is a matter of such paramount importance to my life that I might have to take responsibility for it.
cheers,
**mariyam**
P.S. I met up with an old friend who I surprisingly discovered is a regular reader of my blog. And I was like "Jonah, you really gotta tell me what you think about all this stuff I am writing."
Guys, the same goes for all of you. Don't be shy and send your thoughts my way!