Do the Math!

Alot of people have these very specific goals and dreams, and maybe even a well written plan to get there. All of that is necessary in order to ensure you are on track, but have you done the math on your plan? The math ensures our goals are realistic, the math checks us in a way to ensure we aren't foolishly planning. People say math never lies therefore I urge you if you aren't already, to apply math to your plans. A plan without numbers I believe is just a dream so lets get to it.

Don’t worry when I say we need to start doing more math, we aren’t talking about solving for x, or the Pythagorean theorem. The math we need to be doing is simply addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Before we discuss what math we need to be doing let me share a quick tip on how to quickly do math… Make it easy, if someone asked me what is 70 x 130, I start by breaking that down to 70 x 100 = 7000. Than 70 x 3 =? 210, than add a zero = 2100, now add 7000 and 2100 = 9100. This is how I can easily run numbers in my head quickly if need be.

Malcolm Gladwell is most famous for his concept of the 10,000-hour rule discussed in great detail in his book “Outliers”. Since you are reading this, you are probably not foreign to this concept, as you are interested in personal development. However, if you have not heard of this topic I recommend you write down the name of that book and add it to your list of books to read after this. For those of you who are familiar with this concept, perhaps you’ve planned out how long it would take for you to achieve this 10,000-hour feat. Maybe you achieved those 10,000 hours, maybe you’re halfway there, maybe you saw how long it was going to take and gave up. No matter where you are isn’t relevant for this discussion. What I want you to do is instead take the concept of time and apply it to everything you do.

I want you to break every goal down into time. Then I want you to do the math on how long it will take to achieve each goal. Time is our most precious commodity; this is why billionaires spend their fortunes trying to figure out how to stop aging. Time is absolute, we cannot argue with it. If we put the time in inevitably, we will eventually arrive, right? Well sort of, not only do we need to put the time in, but we need to ensure it is quality time. Everyone has had those days where we were studying or at work but didn’t get anything done. Therefore, time alone is not the goal, but Quality time is.

If we determine a goal will take 800 hours of work to achieve, then perhaps you can cut that in half if those hours are quality hours. Throughout this process you will additionally not be the same person you once were when you started this venture. You will get better, faster, smarter, your hours you put in will have a greater affect. If I want to pick up a new hobby like boxing lessons or learning a new musical instrument, I do research. I look up how long it takes someone to become the top 80% in their field. Then I take those hours and divide them out based on how quick I want to reach that goal. Do I want to be there in a year, is that even possible given the amount of time commitment?

Breaking your goals down with time will allow you to easily structure your goals within your weekly agenda. I still urge you to figure out when you will be at your 10,000 hours on your massive goals. As this will be one of the macro measurements you will use to check progress throughout life.

INPUT GOAL's

Input goals are the reason I have been successful in my past pursuits. What I mean by this is often we create what I call output goals, things that we want. However, we rarely talk about what we need to do in order to achieve these goals. Typically, we set a goal and make a plan to achieve it but when we look at that plan, we sooner or later start to think of it as work and get turned off and eventually give up. However, if you think of how, you structure your plan most of us are viewing the plan incorrectly. Instead of work view the plan as small goals, that if accomplished will put you on track to achieve that output goal. Earlier we broke our goals down with the concept of time spent. That now makes this exercise very easy. I look at every goal of mine and then think of input goals that I need to do in order to achieve the output. I than take those input goal’s and do the math on how many times I need to perform this to achieve my desired output?

This now allows me to simplify each of my goals into deliberate actions that I need to take. I can assure myself that if I take these actions on a consistent basis, I will be on track to have a chance to achieve my goal. After 1 month you need to be 8% closer to your yearly goals, 16% closer to your half year benchmarks, and 33.3% closer to your quarterly goals.

Don’t mistake movement for progress. Let me say that again, please don’t mistake movement for progress. There are a lot of people that are running really fast in place. The reason I wait to mention this now is because we are doing math to decide what we need to do in order to achieve our dreams. And we can often get caught up in the doing, or the planning, or the phone calls, or errand running. Don’t get me wrong you need to work your ass off and be the most consistent person in town. But what you are doing has to propel you forward, or you are wasting time.

A lot of people are just working to live. They go to work to make enough money to pay the bills and to stay alive. These people might be creating the most movement out of everyone. Yet they remain in the same place year after year, why is that? It’s because movement doesn’t cause success, it’s a requirement however it's not the only ingredient. Remember the adage correlation isn’t causation, that applies here as well, don’t get caught up in movement.

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97% vs 3% This is the ratio I have constantly heard about through the many self-help books I've gone through. Some’s ratio may be 90-10 others 99-1, yet whatever the ratio is the message is the same. There are a small portion of the have’s and a large portion of the have nots. There is a small portion of people who get to wake up every day and choose what they want to do. These are the people who, if correctly structured, have the most time to spend with their family and friends. They are the ones who uplift communities by giving back. The ones who create the news; they are the producers not the consumers. I admire the work ethic that these individuals have put in to get to the position where they are.

I think important piece of becoming successful has to do with our subconscious. If I hated these individuals or resented them simply because they are wealthy, then I will never achieve what they have. My mind will ultimately learn to resent not only them but money in general. Therefore, even though I may disagree with specific beliefs certain people may have I can still appreciate their path to the top. And this ensures that I don’t subconsciously turn my mind away from success because of mindless resentment towards strangers.

Money is objective, you determine what happens with it. Do you want to build a hospital in Africa? Or do you want to lobby politicians to push an unethical and unconstitutional agenda? You see the money didn’t change, but the one commanding its effect was different. Do not hate money, and do not fall in love with money. But you must learn to understand money and appreciate its importance in our lives. Do not be afraid of having big goals, and of making a lot of money. I have massive goals, and certain financial benchmarks along the way. I am not ashamed of my financial aspirations because I understand myself, I understand what money is and I understand what it is not. Don’t let society convince you to not chase these goals, as long as you have a thorough understanding of what money will and what it will not give to you.

As you go through everyday life start to look at scenarios and ask what the 3% would do. When I was in college, I was working 2 jobs, one being the graveyard shift, studying marketing at university, running a real estate investment club after class, and a voting member of other campus clubs and organizations. However, this didn’t stop me from reading 1 hour a day, from working out 5 days a week, from keeping a diet for 5 days a week and so on. ?Why do I mention all of this? The reason is because I understood what the 3% do, how the 3% act, and my first inclination on how to reach that percentile of person was to do what others weren’t.

It's that simple, I did the opposite of what other people were doing! If everyone was going to this party on Saturday, I went to work instead. If everyone was smoking, or drinking alcohol every weekend than I didn’t. If everyone was waking up at 7am than I started waking up at 5 am. Because the one who finishes first isn’t the one who is the smartest, but the one who starts first. I heard that the average American reads 1 book a year, so I got my library card and started reading a book every 3 weeks. These are just a few examples of what you can do starting today to identify with the 3% and not the 97%. As you go through daily life look at scenarios and think about this ratio, it will be a confirmation that you are doing what you need to be doing.

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