About My Books 

From JV:

“I have been reading The Pledge, which has been incredibly helpful for me in planning my future. I know it’s not going to be easy, but, for sure, will be worth it.

“My problem: There are so some many things I want to pursue at the same time. The goals I wrote down for 2023 included getting certified as a nutrition coach to help people achieve their weight-loss goals by Feb. 15, increasing my income to $80,000 by June 1, improving my reading speed to 1,000 words a minute by Nov. 30… to name a few. I would like to hear what you think.”

“Thanks for your time.”

My Response: Thanks for the question, JV. I’ll tell you what I think. (What I really think!)

Most people have trouble achieving their goals because they are lazy and unimaginative. They want more money, more fun, more sex, more leisure… more of everything. But they can’t be bothered to set down their goals in writing and pursue a program to get them done.

That’s not your problem. You have lots of goals and you have written them down and made them very specific. Writing them down is great. And figuring out what you need to do to get them done is important, too. But you are doing one thing that most goal-setting gurus advise, but which I think is NOT good. I’m talking about making your goals so specific.

When I first began to set and pursue my goals, I thought this sort of specificity made sense. But as the years rolled by and I actually experienced the ups and downs of goalsetting, I came to realize that for ambitious, driven people (like you and me), it is better to keep the goals more general. You can set a goal of “becoming wealthy in seven years” if “being wealthy” is a flexible term. Or you can be specific about what “being wealthy” means to you, so long as you don’t link it to a specific date.

I know this sounds counterintuitive. And I know it is what other people advise against. But I’m very certain that this is the right way to achieve many goals at the same time. I’ll be writing more about this in future blog posts.