What thoughts are holding you back?

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

What’s Preventing You From Achieving Your Ten Year Goals in Six Months? – Peter Thiel

I love when you ask yourself questions that really push you to assess what you’re doing and where you are going. If you’re trying to get somewhere, it may be common for people to follow along a path long after it suits them.

The big insight I take from this quote is to start by asking yourself what your goal is. From this, you can sketch a line to seeing yourself there. This is more first-principles thinking than just following along the road you are taking.

Another element to this is you can recognize and adapt from your weaknesses as a result. If I had charisma… then I would be able to …., leading to …

The entire premise of the consulting industry is based upon the idea that someone with less experience who views things more detachedly is able to break through otherwise intractable problems because the management is too nose to the grindstone. This means that it’s important to ask structured thought exercises to get to your goals.

Another exercise I like is SMART goals where one essentially commits to very specific behaviors to achieve specific metrics to help visualize and implement success. The more we get better at thinking, the better we’re able to fulfill our respective dreams.