Today I wanna talk about how we set goals, avoid pitfalls, and build systems that create lasting success. Lately, I've been reading out of Sahil Bloom's book Five Types of Wealth and there was a chapter that really stood out for me that was his ideas on goals, anti-goals systems, and leverage. I realize that success isn't about setting goals.
It's about continuously adjusting your settings and your settings are your mindset, your habits, and your daily actions, so that way you can achieve the goals. So that's what I wanna break down today. Life is about direction, not speed. You guys hear me talk about this all the time. Direction is more important than speed. So true. See, goals give you the direction, but the road isn't gonna be straight. There are gonna be obstacles, there are gonna be setbacks.
There are gonna be embarrassing moments, there's gonna be blowups, there are gonna be blindside, and this is where the anti-goals come in. I love this concept. I see it a little bit differently than he does. Your goals are what you want to achieve. Your anti-goals are what you wanna avoid. The decisions, the habits, and the distractions that could sabotage you on the path to your goals. See, most people don't even factor in anti-goals. But they matter just as much as the goal itself.
They're not the unexpected challenges that life throws at you. These choices are within your control. Because of that, they're choices. anti-goals are choices, things that could pull you off course if you allow 'em. For example, if your goal is to build a strong family, an anti goal. Would be allowing work or social media to consistently steal that time. If your goal is financial security, an anti goal is the coping mechanism of, it's been a, a bad day, it's been a bad week.
And so we cope by recklessly spending and we make our situation worse. The key is having an an awareness and you gotta recognize the risks before they take control. Just be aware of this. Sahil talks about systems and leverage two things that separate the wishful thinking from real progress. So if you wanna separate the wishful thinking, oh man, it'd be nice to have this and, and you wanna put something in action, then you've gotta develop systems and also spot your leverage.
Systems are your daily habits and routines that create forward progress. Leverage are the advantages, the routines, and the tools that you already have that multiply your results. Here's where most people go wrong. Most people wake up reacting to the day instead of driving it, they wake up too late, they hit the snooze, they grab their phone first thing in the morning, and before you know it, the day is already controlling them. This is why stress, the importance of creating before you consume.
Most people wake up to consume, instead of creating their own lives, they're consuming everyone else's life from the night before. Your position is your leverage. How you position yourself the night before, the minute you wake up. That's positioning. And if you control the inputs. And you stick to a system, dude, you've already won the day. My goal every single day is to win the day by noon. That's my goal. And so I do the things that productively move the needle in every area of my life.
I have a system in the morning that I consistently do. No matter how the day flows, blows up, I've already taken care of me. I've already done the things that put me in position to win over time. See most people in order to course correct, they have a swing for the fence mentality. They're trying to improve their situation, get back on track in one fail swoop. You can't do that. They're looking for a hundred x leverage by doing one thing. It's not about that. It's consistency over intensity.
The intensity. Is going to naturally rise not only the intensity of your effort, but also the intensity of your results. But you've got to hit the consistency. You've gotta develop a system, find your leverages, things that you can input, and stay away from the things that could sabotage you. So as I talked about just a second ago, my morning routine is my leverage. I wake up before the world even moves, and by the time most people even start their day, I've already won mine.
Now you can apply these principles across every area of your life. The five Fs, I call 'em faith, family, fitness, finances, and fulfillment. That's the five areas of having. An exceptional life. See, each one of these needs a goal and an anti goal. So your faith, the goal would be strengthen your belief. Push beyond your comfort zone. Take risk. See if you're not taking risk. If you can't increase your faith, you've gotta be able to take risk. And risk is just a statistical calculation.
Why everybody lumps risk is in fail. It doesn't, I may fail in the moment, but it's part of the process to improve my skillset, my know-how, my efficiencies, and also increase my faith. So the the faith part component of it, you gotta push yourself beyond your comfort zone. Your faith grows when you stretch beyond what feels safe. But it can also be eroded by negativity, distractions, and self-doubt. So you gotta be mindful of what you consume and who you surround yourself with.
So for your family, the goal, be present. Invest in quality time, create lasting bonds, family and friends, anti goal, letting the distractions work your phone, social media, steal from that time. I was watching Landman and there was a great segment. Jerry Jones was talking to the CEO of that oil company and he said, the reason why I bought the Dallas Cowboys, the sole reason was so that I could work with my family. He said that that was the reason and that like really stuck with me.
So when it comes to your family, what's the goals? And then also what's the anti-goals, what's the things that could erode that over time? Your fitness, your goal. Stay strong, stay mobile. Be healthy as you, this is the youngest you're ever gonna be. And you don't want to be, have the Joe Biden shuffle where you, you don't wanna be that. You don't wanna walk like a penguin. So that's the goal, is to stay strong mentally and physically strong.
But the anti goal is letting these poor habits sink in. Sedentary lifestyle, junk food, not moving the needle. Get in the weight room, man. Bust a sweat, get on the road. Look, bro, you don't have to be a bodybuilder, but you do need to maintain strength, mobility, and energy. That's how you feed this thing. Finances. Your goal would be to achieve financial security, build wealth, create opportunities, anti-goals, avoid reckless spending, unnecessary debt, or ignoring your financial future.
The thing that like absolutely scares me. I'm 51. I don't wanna be one of those guys that's like 70 years old, was in sales for. Gabillion years and have nothing to show for it. No, and that's the, that's the tough thing, especially in sales. Man, you make a lot of money, but you piss away a lot of money too. And so as you get older, man, you stay, you, you, you look at that, you now you're aware of that and it's like, Ooh, okay, gotta have a new strategy.
Good news is in sales, man, you can get it back pretty quick. But you also gotta pay attention to those anti-goals as well. The thing about money, a mistake a lot of people make is when they set a goal, normally they'll say, well, I wanna make $5 million. But when you put pen to paper, you realize a great life costs far less than you think fulfillment.
You gotta have a creative outlet, man, whatever it is, writing, music, art, building something, whatever, you have to have that creative expression. Your anti goal would be to let so much busyness, kill your passion, get back to that man, even if it's just for a few minutes every single day. I have the overlaps. I love to read. I love to write. I love to share a message. So this is, this is my woodworking class right here. The microphone.
This is a creative outlet for me, and when I don't do it, man, I get, I get edgy. You gotta have something, man that lights you up if you ignore it. Everything else is gonna feel hollow and probably some of the reason why you feel like it's just you're just a candle in the wind, man. You just kind of, you feel empty is because you're missing some of these components. Fulfillment could be a big thing. You think it's just arts and crafts time? No, it's a creative outlet, man.
It's the thing that actually brings you energy. One of the biggest takeaways that I read from this chapter is that balance isn't an all on off switch. Everybody talks about balance. It's more so of a dimmer. So sometimes fitness is gonna take priority, but that way, in this short season, 90 days, you get super strict, you get that thing back on track. Now you can be better in your professional life, better for your family.
You may have a financial season where it increases with intensity, but not at the cost of faith or fulfillment, so it'll dim a little bit. Your dimmer switch may go up for the financial part of it. But you don't want to just torch everything. You don't want to click off your faith or your family. You need all those things. 'cause you don't want to get to a place and then have nobody to enjoy it with. It's about adjusting, not shutting things off completely. So here's what I want you to do.
Write your goals. That you want in each of the five F's, and then also list out the anti-goals, the things that could sabotage those goals. Then develop a system. Just a few things that you could do every single day that help move the needle forward and then spot your leverages. Everybody's got leverages. Don't talk about what you don't have. Use what you already have. You have leverage. Where can you gain an advantage?
Find your, no matter what some of your leverages, a lot of your leverages are going to be early in the morning before everybody else wakes up. That means you gotta go to bed a little bit earlier too. You gotta just change your systems up a little bit and then look at your settings. What do the settings need to be? Kind of think about it in a studio aspect of it.
So when you walk into a recording studio, all the settings aren't all, even, they're all different based on how they want the sound to blend together. That's how you have to look at your life. So look at it like a studio board, and so you're adjusting the mixing not everything's shut off, but never, not everything's full blast either. So adjust your settings based on the season that you're in right now, so that way it blends together. And you have a melodic successful life.
Alright, let's get outta here. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Keep it simple, keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. Peace.