Productivity

Anti-Goals

Clarify the things you don't want to happen, so you can better avoid them.
Useful when
  • You want to identify what you don't want in order to better avoid it
  • You want to find enjoyment and fulfillment in your work and personal life
About

Charlie Munger has a famous saying: “Tell me where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.”

We often think about what we want, but sometimes it’s more helpful to think about what you don’t like or the person you don’t want to be a year from now. It’s easier to know what you want to avoid than to exactly know what you want. Anti-goals help you clarify what misery is for you, so you can become more conscious of not ending up in despair.

When you don’t focus on the dream but try to avoid hell, you end up doing pretty well.

Things to keep in mind:

• Anti-goals should work along with your goals to keep you accountable.

• Anti-goals evolve in time together with you and your goals.

• Anti-goals should motivate you to move forward by making the hell visible.

Examples
Examples

Andrew Wilkinson, the founder of Tiny, told a story about when he sat down with his business partner and thought about what they wanted to achieve with their business. They came up with all sorts of lofty goals but found out that the true objective was pretty simple. They wanted to actually enjoy their time at work, something which many successful business people struggle with.

You can have an awesome life on the outside, but it’s meaningless when inside, you feel like crap all the time. The days can slowly start to fill up with things you don’t want to do. You feel the need to beat the calendar, do business with people you don’t like, or find out that you only get 4 hours of sleep every night.

Think about what misery would look like in your business, career, relationships, and health, and then avoid that.

This framework has
2
questions
Useful when
  • You want to identify what you don't want in order to better avoid it
  • You want to find enjoyment and fulfillment in your work and personal life