Making Goals Actionable

To achieve a goal, you need to break it down into concrete tasks that you can work on right now.

The trick to knowing what these tasks are is to work backwards from your goal to your current situation.

If your goal is to be financially independent, for example, the process might look like this:

• When is the goal achieved?
  • Net worth of x (decide on a number and possibly other conditions)
    • What do I need to get there?
      • Do some research (examples could be an exceptionally high-paying job or a profitable business)
• What do I need to get an exceptionally high-paying job?
  • Research high-paying jobs
  • Choose one that sounds interesting and research how to get it (e.g. quantitative trading)
• How do I become a quantitative trader?
  • Research that + break it down further

You need a clear starting point, so the first question needs to be “When is the goal achieved?”

Then you continually ask variations of “What do I need to get there?”, until you reach something that you can work on right now.

Make sure you don’t get too specific with a task until you actually start working on it. This keeps your project planner tidy and you at a fast pace.