Your Goals Are Fake Until You Write Them Down
The gap between dreaming and achieving is a pen and paper
I used to say I wanted to be successful.
When people asked what that meant, I'd wave my hands around and talk about freedom and impact and making a difference.
Real vague stuff.
The kind of answer that sounds profound in your head but means absolutely nothing when you say it out loud.
That's the problem with most people's goals. They exist as fuzzy concepts floating around in your brain.
“I want to make money. I want to be successful. I want to do something meaningful.”
Cool. Join the club. So does everyone else.
The difference between people who actually achieve what they want and people who spend their entire lives wishing for it comes down to one brutally simple thing - writing it down and reverse engineering the path to get there.
Not in a notes app.
Not in your head.
On actual paper with actual specifics.
The Problem With General Ideas
Let me guess what your goals look like right now.
Maybe you want to be the next Elon Musk. Maybe you want to be like some influencer who seems to have it all figured out. Maybe you just want to be rich or famous or talented.
Those aren't goals. Those are fantasies dressed up as ambition.
When you say you want to be the next Elon Musk, what you're really saying is you want to run a lot of companies and make a lot of money. When you say you want to be successful, you're just pointing at a vague cloud of positive outcomes without any actual definition.
Here's the test - can you measure it? Can you put a date on it? Can you break it down into actions?
If not, you don't have a goal. You have a daydream.
I see this constantly.
People who have been wanting to start a business for five years.
People who talk about writing a book but never write a single page.
People who claim they want to get in shape but can't tell you what that actually means in numbers.
The reason they never make progress isn't because they're lazy or unmotivated.
The reason is they never made their goals concrete enough to actually work toward them.
You can't reverse engineer vague.
You can't build a system around maybe.
You can't form habits that lead to someday.
The Five Goals Exercise
Here's what I want you to do right now.
Grab a pen. Grab paper.
Not your phone. Not a document.
Physical pen and physical paper.
Write down five specific goals with specific timelines.
Not - I want to be successful on YouTube.
Instead - I want to have 10,000 YouTube subscribers within 12 months.
Not - I want to make more money.
Instead - I want to earn $10,000 per month within 18 months.
Not - I want to be in better shape.
Instead - I want to deadlift 300 pounds and run a sub-7 minute mile within 6 months.
See the difference?
One version is something you can actually plan for. The other is just noise.
Once you have those five goals written down, you've already done more than 90% of people who claim they want to achieve something. You've made it real. You've committed it to physical space.
But that's just step one.
Reverse Engineering Your Life
Now comes the part most people skip - breaking down each goal into the actual daily actions required to achieve it.
Let's take the YouTube example. You want 10,000 subscribers in 12 months.
What does that require?
Depending on your niche and quality, you probably need to post 1-2 videos per week minimum. That's roughly 50-100 videos over the year.
Before you can post those videos, you need skills.
Video editing. Thumbnail creation. Script writing. On-camera presence. Audio quality.
So now your goal branches out. You need to learn those skills.
That takes time and practice.
Maybe you dedicate 2 hours every morning to learning and creating before work.
Maybe you batch-create content on weekends.
You also need to study what works.
That means analyzing successful channels, testing different formats, paying attention to what gets engagement.
Suddenly, your vague desire to be a YouTuber becomes a concrete schedule:
• Learn video editing fundamentals (Week 1-2) • Practice filming and editing 5 test videos (Week 3-4) • Study 20 successful channels in your niche (Week 2-4) • Create publishing schedule and batch first 4 videos (Week 5) • Post first video and analyze performance (Week 6) • Iterate based on feedback and analytics (Ongoing) • Maintain 1-2 videos per week output (Months 2-12)
That's reverse engineering.
You start with the end point and work backwards until you hit actions you can take today.
Most people never do this.
They just keep saying they want the thing without mapping the actual path to get the thing.
You Have To Become A Different Person
Here's the uncomfortable truth nobody wants to hear.
The person you are right now doesn't have the things you want.
If you did, you wouldn't be reading this.
That means the person you currently are is not capable of achieving what you claim you want to achieve.
You need to become someone else.
Someone who has those things.
Someone who can achieve those things.
If your goals are optimistic - and they should be - this transformation is massive.
You're not just adding a new habit. You're reshuffling your entire identity.
The person who makes a million dollars a month doesn't sleep until noon.
They don't scroll social media for three hours a day.
They don't skip workouts or eat like garbage or avoid difficult conversations.
They have systems.
They have schedules.
They have non-negotiable habits that run on autopilot.
You can't achieve outsized results while maintaining average behaviors. The math doesn't work.
So when you write down those five goals, you need to ask yourself - am I willing to become the person who achieves these things?
Am I willing to wake up at 5 AM if that's what it takes?
Am I willing to work on my business every single day for a year?
Am I willing to say no to distractions and comfortable routines?
If the answer is no, you don't actually want the goal.
You like the idea of having achieved it.
You like imagining yourself as that person.
But you're not willing to do the work to become that person.
And that's fine. Not everyone needs to be ambitious.
But at least be honest with yourself about it.
Habits, Systems, and Schedules
Once you've mapped out what needs to happen and committed to becoming the person who makes it happen, you need to build the infrastructure.
This is where most goal-setting advice stops. It gives you the motivation and the vision but doesn't give you the daily structure.
You need three things:
• Habits - The automatic behaviors that happen without thinking. Waking at the same time. Opening your laptop and starting to write. Going to the gym at a specific hour. These remove the decision-making friction that kills progress.
• Systems - The repeatable processes that ensure quality and consistency. Your content creation workflow. Your client onboarding process. Your weekly review routine. Systems prevent you from reinventing the wheel every single time.
• Schedules - The time-blocked calendar that protects your priorities. If your goal requires 2 hours of focused work daily, that 2 hours needs to be blocked and sacred. Not negotiable. Not movable. Protected.
Without these three elements, you're relying on willpower and motivation.
And willpower runs out. Motivation fades.
But a system that runs on habit and schedule? That compounds.
That's how you go from zero to 10,000 subscribers. From broke to profitable. From out of shape to athlete.
Not by wanting it really badly. By building the daily infrastructure that makes it inevitable.
Buy A Pocket Notebook
Here's my final piece of advice.
Buy a small notebook that fits in your pocket. Keep it with you everywhere.
Every morning, write down what you need to do that day to move toward your goals.
Start small if you need to.
Take out the trash. Clean the kitchen. Make the bed.
Start adding your daily habits.
Write 1 YouTube script. Cold DM one prospect. Study 1 skill.
Every evening, review what you did and what you learned.
Once a week, review your five goals and assess your progress.
Are you on track?
Do you need to adjust your approach?
Are there new skills you need to develop?
Once a month, do a deeper reflection.
Are these still the right goals?
Have you been consistent with your habits?
What's working and what isn't?
This practice alone will put you ahead of 95% of people who claim they're working toward something.
Because most people never actually track their progress.
They just hope they're getting somewhere while doing roughly the same things they've always done.
You can't improve what you don't measure.
You can't achieve what you don't define.
You can't become who you need to be without intentional transformation.
So write it down. Map it out. Build the habits. Protect the schedule.
Or keep dreaming about it and wondering why nothing ever changes.
Your choice.