Why You Should Set Audacious Goals & Remove Limiting Beliefs in 2018
Guiding Principle #24 Setting Audacious Goals & Remove Limiting Beliefs
New Years is one of my favorite times of year.
Ever since I was a little kid I would be so excited to get my brand new notebook and gelly pens just so I could write out my goals for the year.
As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized the importance of reflecting on the past in order to understand what worked, and what didn’t work, to iterate and improve for the future.
As I began thinking about what I wanted to accomplish this year a quote by Steve Jobs came to mind.
“When you grow up you tend to get told the world is the way it is and you’re life is just to live your life inside the world. Try not to bash into the walls too much. Try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader once you discover one simple fact: Everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you and you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
I realized my greatest fear in life is to live an average one…which is why Guiding Principle #24 is to “Set Audacious Goals & Remove Limiting Beliefs”.
In the past I would catch myself setting limiting beliefs by listening to that tiny voice in my head that said I wasn’t good enough or I’d NEVER be able to accomplish that.
Now whenever I come up with a creative idea, project, or ambition and find myself wondering “What if I fail?” or “Am I good enough to accomplish this?” I recognize that voice and move forward with setting an audacious goal anyways.
This year I decided to do some reflection by writing out everything that I had accomplished the last year since reflection is a huge part of being able to plan for the future.
It’s not perfect.
There was A LOT that I didn’t get to accomplish but reflection is necessary to make progress.
What I Accomplished in 2017
Reading:
Read hundreds of Medium Articles (wrote a few too!)
Some favorite books include: The Female Brain, Never Split the difference, Tools of Titans, The $100 startup, The 4 Hour Workweek, The Power of Habit.
Fitness:
Took my first Lyra class (+20 more) went from not being able to do a single pull-up to being able to do 6!
Worked out 4+ days a week (except when sick of course)
Revisited pole and bachata
Meditated 170+ days in 2017
Work & Personal Improvement:
Facilitated my first panel (make that two!) & participated in my first panel
Hosted 10+ events at Galvanize empowering female founders/women in tech
Created the Transformative Storytelling Series and hosted 3 successful events, with Naveen Jain, Dream Rockwell, and Leah Busque
Made 200+ introductions for Galvanize Community Members and conducted dozens of checks-ins with entrepreneurs
Facilitated programming/content that trained 1,100+ entrepreneurs
Facilitated weekly socials, happy hours, mindfulness, and experiential events for community members
Diversified the Galvanize Mentor Program by increasing minority and female mentors by 50%
Achieved an all time high programming NPS of 75–80 for SF Campus
Worked with Google for Entrepreneurs to create a Mentorship program that exceeded set goals
Became a writer for Startup Grind on Medium, increased from an average of 100 views to 800 views within 1 month.
Attended CFAR and learned to “think”
Conducted my first “founder interview” blog post
Brought on a career coach to dive deeper into fears around my career
Travel:
Multiple road-trips exploring around the bay area
Camping (Gold Rush festival)
Traveled solo internationally for the first time
Added 4 new countries to my passport Cuba, London, Spain, & Egypt.
Visited the Real Alcázar in Seville (where they filmed Westeros in GoT)
Fulfilled my lifelong dream of going to Hawaii, & visited 2 new US cities Portland and Seattle
Relationships:
Spent 2 weeks of quality time in Egypt with my mom
Stopped on a layover in LA and had lunch at The Ivy with Lauren
Visited my childhood best friend Brittany in Palm Springs
Did multiple creative projects with Alex including re-doing my website
Checked 39+ tasks off of our Asana “Get S*** Done Adventure List” w/ Josh
Fell deeply in love ❤
Food & Cooking:
Josh and I stepped up our cooking skills
Meal prepped every other week averaging 8–10 lunches/dinners each time
Made over a dozen new meals from scratch including thai curry, coconut quinoa bowl, pasta sauce, soup, szechuan noodles, persian food, pancakes, mint popsicles, all things avocado, and much much more.
Threw our first very successful dinner party w/ the help of Feastly
Made hundreds of smoothies with favorites being peanut butter banana and a mango/ginger smoothie
Learned to make my favorite Persian dish Adas Polo. Thanks Mom!
Creative Projects:
Checked off my bucket list to “Do a Vintage Photoshoot in Cuba”
Experimented and made many beautiful flowers/creations from clay
Created and facilitated multiple team-building events with NPS of 9+
Envisioned and threw a successful 100+ person casino warehouse party complete with a secret speakeasy bar
Photographed Josh’s place for Airbnb, fashion garden photoshoot & Bohemian Guitars
Random:
Checked off the bucket list to become a mermaid
Met and had dinner with Tim Ferriss
Acquired 10+ plants and succulents — which are still alive! :)
Expanded my music taste with my “Roya :)” spotify playlist. Thanks Josh!
Attended 30+ AMAZING shows (Glass Animals, Bonobo, Tame Impala, Sigur Ros, many many more!)
Signed the lease on an apartment in the city!
Ate 80% vegetarian
Baked my first marble cake and macarons from scratch
Saved 20%+ of my paycheck each month using Betterment
Minimised possessions and created a system for bringing “things” into my life
Perfected packing for international trips
Consciously practiced vulnerability even when it was hard and I REALLY didn’t want to
Wrote out my life principles and used them to guide my decision making
Reflecting on the Hard Things
Well I don’t like dwelling on negative or sad things it’s important to remember just how short life is and to practice gratitude every single day. I suffered the loss of several family members this past year. I became extremely ill over New Years and ended up in the hospital unsure if things were going to be ok. It sounds cliche but everyday is really a gift and these things are a reminder to practice gratitude daily.
Setting 2018 Goals
The exercise of writing out what I accomplished in 2017 allowed me to focus on the positive. It also made me realize everything that I didn’t accomplish and where I needed to focus if I didn’t want another year to pass without accomplishing those goals.
I came across a PDF from SF entrepreneur Ryan Allis, in it he talks about setting goals and holding yourself accountable.
I was inspired by his slide deck “Lessons from my 20s” where he talks about setting goals and explains how he has been able to accomplish them. I’m a big fan of the concept that the act of writing clarifies thought.
Following Ryan Allis’s example I decided to post-it note the heck out of every single goal by writing them out on post-its and placing them in the window (to stare me in the face every time I looked outside). :P
I wrote whatever came to mind and eventually came up with the goals that I wanted to accomplish this year.
Writing goals isn’t something that just happens at New Years. It’s a constant ever evolving process.
It isn’t perfect. Life is messy and things get in the way. If you don’t write down your goals the chances of actually accomplishing them drops significantly.
For example, I can accomplish my goal to “Save at least 30% of my paycheck” by setting up a direct deposit into another account like Betterment and budgeting accordingly.
Other goals like “Write and post an article weekly on medium” will require continuous weekly or even daily effort.
The next step is setting systems in place around your routines, environment, and the daily flux of life.
This is the part where most goals fail.
By constantly reading your goals, reflecting on progress, and iterating by setting systems in place you’ll bring yourself that much closer to accomplishing them.
