even the most insane goal can be achieved with this method — Transcript

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1. 0:00Any goal that you can ever possibly want
2. 0:01to achieve can be decomposed into a grid
3. 0:03that looks exactly like this one. And if
4. 0:05you're able to do this, then it is
5. 0:07almost guaranteed that you are going to
6. 0:09be meeting that goal. And this is what
7. 0:12is known as the Mandala goal setting
8. 0:15method. And I'm going to walk you
9. 0:16through exactly how you can be using
10. 0:19that in this video. I'm actually working
11. 0:21through this myself right now, so I'm
12. 0:22going to use both an example that is the
13. 0:25current thing that I'm working through
14. 0:26and another example just to make it much
15. 0:28clearer in your heads. So, if you need
16. 0:30to set goals, if you want to achieve
17. 0:31things, if you actually want to do the
18. 0:33things that you say you're going to do,
19. 0:35rather than just continually saying
20. 0:36you're going to do things and never
21. 0:37achieving them, this is the video for
22. 0:39you. If you're new here, I'm Erin and
23. 0:41welcome to my Monday vlog series. In the
24. 0:43series, I basically just go through
25. 0:44what's going on in my life. I am a land
26. 0:46economy student at Cambridge. I'm a
27. 0:47content creator. I tend to travel quite
28. 0:50a lot. I'm currently based in San
29. 0:51Francisco because I'm also the
30. 0:52co-founder of a startup that's building
31. 0:54some really cool software and hardware
32. 0:57for personal data security. So, I set a
33. 1:00lot of goals and there are a lot of
34. 1:01things that I want to achieve in my life
35. 1:03and these are some of the strategies
36. 1:04that I am implementing. At the moment,
37. 1:07this Mandala strategy has been one of
38. 1:09the best things that I've ever tried
39. 1:11using and so that's why I want to share
40. 1:13it with you. I'm going to go right from
41. 1:14the start and break down everything you
42. 1:16need to know. So, without further ado,
43. 1:17let's get into things and make sure you
44. 1:19stick around and subscribe for more
45. 1:20videos like this. I also give lecture
46. 1:22series on a Saturday morning and I have
47. 1:24curiosity maxing where I deep dive into
48. 1:26a math, philosophy, neuroscience,
49. 1:28anything on a Thursday. Normally, when
50. 1:29you decide you want to do something,
51. 1:31like get better at math, get fit, run a
52. 1:32marathon, you [snorts] say like this is
53. 1:34what I want to do, but you don't
54. 1:35actually
55. 1:37build the framework that helps you do
56. 1:38that particular thing. Because saying I
57. 1:40want to do something is not equivalent
58. 1:42to saying, "Oh, I'm going to do this
59. 1:43thing." They're two very different
60. 1:45things. So, I'm going to basically
61. 1:46really practically walk you through and
62. 1:47by the end of this video, you will have
63. 1:49your own Mandala chart. This looks kind
64. 1:50of scary and intimidating because it's
65. 1:52pretty big. So, we're actually not going
66. 1:54to start with a 9 by 9 grid. And
67. 1:56instead, what we're going to start with
68. 1:58is a simple 3x3 grid. So, it's just
69. 2:01going to look
70. 2:02exactly like this. And what you're going
71. 2:06to do is you're going to put this on a
72. 2:08piece of paper or on a whiteboard if you
73. 2:09have a whiteboard handy. And in the
74. 2:10middle, you're going to write what your
75. 2:13goal is. So, the big goal that I have
76. 2:15that I'm personally doing this for is to
77. 2:17build the best personal agent hardware
78. 2:18in the world. For context, this is what
79. 2:20I am building. It's really cool. But for
80. 2:22the purpose of this video, I'm just
81. 2:24going to abstract into something that
82. 2:25people are going to be slightly more
83. 2:26familiar with so that it's going to make
84. 2:28a bit more sense in your head and a bit
85. 2:30more applicable to the many students who
86. 2:32are probably going to be watching this.
87. 2:33And so,
88. 2:34in this context, I'm going to set my
89. 2:36goal as being getting a first in my
90. 2:38degree. So, my goal is to be getting top
91. 2:41grades. Now, in order to achieve this
92. 2:42particular goal,
93. 2:44I need to be doing things, right? If I
94. 2:45continue doing exactly what I'm doing
95. 2:47right now, then I'm not necessarily
96. 2:48going to make an improvement. And so,
97. 2:50you can't just be like, "Okay, this is
98. 2:52my goal. I'm going to get on with
99. 2:53things." That's never going to happen.
100. 2:54So, what you're going to do in these
101. 2:56eight squares that surround are
102. 2:58basically talking about, "Okay, in order
103. 3:00to achieve that, what do I need to do?"
104. 3:01Like, what are the requisite steps? What
105. 3:04are the requisite components of this
106. 3:06particular goal that when I do them all
107. 3:08and stack them all on top of each other,
108. 3:09it's going to allow me to get that A
109. 3:10grades? So, it might be things like
110. 3:12studying for 30 minutes a day, reading a
111. 3:14book every week, or watching a lecture
112. 3:16series every month. Or it might be
113. 3:18considerably more specific things. These
114. 3:20can be quite broad and generalizable. It
115. 3:22might be something like, "Oh, okay. I
116. 3:23need to get better at persuasive
117. 3:26writing." Perhaps I need to write more
118. 3:28essays and improve that. Perhaps I need
119. 3:30to go away and write my own math
120. 3:33problems and start solving them and
121. 3:34understand how to do ones outside of the
122. 3:36textbook. Already, this is so much more
123. 3:38useful than just saying, "Okay, what do
124. 3:39I want?" Like, I want top grades.
125. 3:41Because already, you're breaking down
126. 3:43and you're thinking, "Okay, what does
127. 3:45have to be true? What do I have to be
128. 3:46doing differently in order to be
129. 3:48achieving this particular goal?" And
130. 3:49that's where you're going to break down
131. 3:51into every single one of these eight
132. 3:53additional boxes. Now that you've got
133. 3:55this fully filled in 3 by 3 grid, we're
134. 3:58going to zoom out and we're going to
135. 3:59construct the 9 by 9 Mandela grid. So,
136. 4:03the way that you compose this is that
137. 4:05your main goal remains in the middle.
138. 4:08That is this sort of get top grades.
139. 4:11However, what you now do is build this
140. 4:14like 3 by 3 grid around every single one
141. 4:17of these little subcomponents that are
142. 4:20needed in order to achieve your main
143. 4:22goal. Let me show you what that's going
144. 4:23to look like. So, you have your getting
145. 4:25top grades
146. 4:27in the middle here.
147. 4:29And then you're going to basically
148. 4:30construct 3 by 3 grids around. So,
149. 4:34you've got your eight things. So, this
150. 4:36is the same as this, but now what you're
151. 4:38going to do is you're basically going to
152. 4:40have a bunch of other
153. 4:433 by 3 grids I could just draw all the
154. 4:44way around.
155. 4:46And in the middle of every single one of
156. 4:49these external 3 by 3 grids,
157. 4:52you're basically going to have
158. 4:54what you had in this 3 by 3 grid. So,
159. 4:57for example, here study 30 minutes per
160. 4:59day is going to go in the middle of this
161. 5:023 by 3 grid up here. And then I'm going
162. 5:04to repeat the exact same process. So,
163. 5:05I'm going to come up with eight things
164. 5:07that are needed in order for me to study
165. 5:10for 30 minutes every single day. And I'm
166. 5:12going to repeat that for all of these
167. 5:13things. So, allocate time to relax is
168. 5:15going to go here and then I'm going to
169. 5:16come up with eight requisite things that
170. 5:18I need in order to be allocating time to
171. 5:20relax. So, I'm basically repeating
172. 5:22exactly what I've done and just
173. 5:23expanding it out for every single one of
174. 5:25these eight things that are needed for
175. 5:26me to achieve my goal. That sounds
176. 5:28pretty simple enough, but the hardest
177. 5:29part of this exercise is choosing what
178. 5:31these eight things need to be because
179. 5:33they aren't just things that need to
180. 5:35happen for you to achieve this goal.
181. 5:36They aren't just like nice to have. They
182. 5:38are things that when you stop and you
183. 5:40ask yourself what actually needs to
184. 5:42happen for me to achieve this goal.
185. 5:43Like, what manifestly would make a
186. 5:45difference? They are those key drivers
187. 5:47and that's what you should be aiming to
188. 5:49write down, things that are going to
189. 5:50make a meaningful difference. And try to
190. 5:52make them reasonably distinct, cuz if
191. 5:53I'd said, "Oh, study 30 minutes per day
192. 5:55and maybe study for 5 hours per week,"
193. 5:58then that's the same goal really, just
194. 6:00stated twice. You want them to be nice
195. 6:01and distinct such that you're
196. 6:03encompassing as many different areas as
197. 6:05you possibly can. But don't worry about
198. 6:07getting the correct eight the first
199. 6:08time. Like you can iterate, you can
200. 6:10change over time, and I think the best
201. 6:12way of converging on the eight is to
202. 6:14simply brain dump as many as you can
203. 6:15possibly think of, and then going off
204. 6:17the back of that and seeing, "Okay, what
205. 6:19is going to be most meaningful and
206. 6:21impactful out of these ones that I have
207. 6:22written down." So, think of everything
208. 6:24you can, and then narrow down from
209. 6:25there. But when you're determining your
210. 6:27eight for either the original eight or
211. 6:29the eight that you put around them in
212. 6:31the full 9 by 9 grid, there are a couple
213. 6:33of rules that you can do to determine
214. 6:34whether or not you've converged upon a
215. 6:36good idea. So, if it is something that
216. 6:39you can tick off a list, generally that
217. 6:42means it is a pretty good thing. What I
218. 6:44mean by this is, for example, study 30
219. 6:47minutes per day. You can literally put
220. 6:48that in your calendar, you can tick it
221. 6:49off. You either did study for 30 minutes
222. 6:51per day or you did not. So, that is a
223. 6:53good thing. Here, I've written ask more
224. 6:55questions in class. That is quite a bad
225. 6:57thing because I can't tick that off
226. 6:59because if one day I ask three
227. 7:00questions, the next day I ask four
228. 7:02questions, day after I ask five, I can
229. 7:04just keep going up by one each time and
230. 7:05I can never hit this goal. So, maybe
231. 7:08this should be more like ask at least
232. 7:10one question when you are stuck or
233. 7:12something like this to make it slightly
234. 7:14more concrete. The other thing that you
235. 7:16should be thinking about is whether or
236. 7:18not the outcome is under your control.
237. 7:21So, let's park this for a second and
238. 7:23let's say that I was thinking about
239. 7:26developing my content creation skills,
240. 7:28and one of these boxes was get at least,
241. 7:31you know, 10 million views per month on
242. 7:33Instagram. That is not something I can
243. 7:35control. What I can control is put out
244. 7:38two Instagram videos every single day.
245. 7:40So, that is an actionable outcome, and
246. 7:41that is what I should be focusing on.
247. 7:44Whereas, these broader outcomes that are
248. 7:46not under my control, you know, I can't
249. 7:48say I'm going to get this exact many
250. 7:50millions of views every single month,
251. 7:52then I leave those off because that is
252. 7:54not productive to have in your chart.
253. 7:56So, once you've completed this, you're
254. 7:57going to run into a problem because you
255. 7:59are now going to have 64 new actions to
256. 8:03be implementing into your life, and you
257. 8:04cannot put them all into your life
258. 8:06overnight. It's just not going to
259. 8:07happen. So, the pitfall that a lot of
260. 8:09people will fall into is having watched
261. 8:10this, having seen, "Okay, this is how
262. 8:12you deconstruct it. This is how you make
263. 8:14the Mandala Grid." Like, "What am I
264. 8:15going to do now?" A lot of people will
265. 8:17do absolutely nothing because this
266. 8:18becomes very overwhelming very quickly.
267. 8:20So, you're going to go through all 64 of
268. 8:22those actions, and you're going to
269. 8:23identify what are the highest leverage
270. 8:25items. Ideally, you're going to pick one
271. 8:27thing from every single one of these
272. 8:30eight outer boxes. Even better,
273. 8:32sometimes what you're going to find is
274. 8:34that maybe the item over here is equal
275. 8:36to the item over here, and it helps you
276. 8:38achieving both goals. That is something
277. 8:40you definitely want to be doing. That is
278. 8:41something that is super high leverage.
279. 8:42So, look for these sort of synergies,
280. 8:44and pick between five and eight that you
281. 8:46are going to really dive deep on for the
282. 8:48first week. The second week, you're
283. 8:49going to stick with those five to eight
284. 8:51and add another five to eight. And
285. 8:53you're going to do this over time over
286. 8:54time for the 8 12 weeks that it takes
287. 8:56for you to incorporate everything that
288. 8:58you have put into your graph. And for
289. 9:00everything that you're saying, "Okay,
290. 9:01I'm going to actually do it this week,"
291. 9:03you've got to put it into your week. And
292. 9:04what I mean by that
293. 9:06is that instead of just saying, "Oh, I'm
294. 9:08going to
295. 9:09study for 30 minutes." By this, you
296. 9:11know, I'm going to set up my work as
297. 9:13soon as I come from home. And by this, I
298. 9:15mean I'm going to set up my office maybe
299. 9:16as soon as I come back from class.
300. 9:18You want to actively be putting things
301. 9:20into your calendar. You want to be
302. 9:21actively writing lists with physical
303. 9:23things for you to tick off.
304. 9:25You want to be using the wave of
305. 9:26motivation that you are riding right
306. 9:28now, having just charted out exactly
307. 9:30what it is that you need to do to hit
308. 9:31your goals. You're motivated. You're at
309. 9:34the peak of willingness to do the hard
310. 9:36stuff. So, take advantage of that and
311. 9:39actively schedule things into your life.
312. 9:40Most importantly, remember that this is
313. 9:42something that is likely to change as
314. 9:44your priority shift and as your goals
315. 9:46shift. But, once you've done it once,
316. 9:48you're going to be able to do it over
317. 9:49and over again for all of the different
318. 9:51goals that you want to achieve. This has
319. 9:53been such an unlock for me.
320. 9:55I've been really using it to try and
321. 9:56narrow down my thinking around what I
322. 9:58want to achieve with the work that I am
323. 9:59doing, and I think it's going to be
324. 10:00fantastically beneficial for you as
325. 10:02well. So, let me know in the comments,
326. 10:04what is the goal in the center of your
327. 10:06mandala chart? Are you going to go away
328. 10:07and do this? What tweaks might you be
329. 10:09making? I love the discussion. I do my
330. 10:11best to respond to every comment. And as
331. 10:13always, I'll see you in the next video.
332. 10:15If this was helpful, be sure to
333. 10:16subscribe, give it a thumbs up, and
334. 10:18share it to a friend who might find it
335. 10:19useful. Bye-bye.