Control Actions Not Results

Shaan Puri and Sam Parr discuss their approaches to goal setting, emphasizing the importance of focusing on controllable inputs rather than outcomes. They share personal experiences and strategies for making goals more achievable and meaningful.

Key Goal Setting Strategies:

• Picture Goals / Movie Scene Goals:

  • Use visual representations instead of just written text
  • Find pictures (like houses on Zillow) that represent the goal
  • Create mental "movie scenes" that capture the feeling of achievement

• Floor and Ceiling Goals:

  • Set a minimum acceptable outcome (floor)
  • Define an ambitious best-case scenario (ceiling)
  • Example: Podcast goals
    • Floor: Make 15 new friends through guest interviews
    • Ceiling: Build a large, engaged audience

• Goals and Anti-Goals:

  • Explicitly define what you don't want to happen
  • Helps avoid common traps of success
  • Example: Want podcast success but don't want it to feel like work
  • Identify potential negative outcomes upfront to plan against them

• Daily Visibility:

  • Keep goals visible and top of mind
  • Set daily reminders in tools like Slack
  • If you can't articulate your goal instantly, it's not clear enough

• Belief-Driven Action:

  • Don't move unless you actually believe it will happen
  • Belief drives action, action creates results
  • Low belief leads to timid action and poor results
  • High belief enables massive action

• Baby Goals / Giggle Steps:

  • Start with steps so small they make you laugh
  • Remove fear and intimidation from starting
  • Example: Floss one tooth instead of all teeth

• Revise Up or Abort:

  • Either make goals more ambitious or completely abandon them
  • Don't compromise down to mediocrity
  • When new information comes in, either elevate or exit