#20 Listen to This Before Setting Goals or New Year's Resolutions

Siim Land (0:02)

Bing bong, bing bong, Christmas bells are ringing.

Merry Christmas everyone, and welcome to another one of my live streams. My name is Siim of course, and today I want to talk about setting New Year's goals. And this should be the video you watch before you set any New Year's resolutions for 2018 One of the first things I want you to realize is that it doesn't matter what day of the year it is, and it doesn't matter what year it is either. You still have to show up to the greatest version of yourself. You still have to make the right decisions, stick to your good habits, and continuously improve yourself. You might be this ambitious go-getter who takes a lot of massive action every single day. Do it. You might also be a newbie who is setting their first goal ever.

You might be a procrastinator who can't seem to get themselves to do what they know they need to do. And you blow it! But you have to realize that do or do not...

SPEAKER_2 (1:15)

There is no trying.

Siim Land (1:17)

Once you've decided to do something, then you either make it happen or you quit it. You stop doing it. You stop the pursuit because it will be a waste of your time and priorities.

SPEAKER_2 (1:30)

Stop it!

Siim Land (1:31)

You have to ask yourself, do I really want to achieve this goal?

Is it actually important for the things that I want to achieve with my life's purpose and greater achievements? If the answer is yes, then you have to commit to your goals no matter what. You have to make this absolute statement to Just do it! Not give up and to keep going, no matter how tough it gets, no matter how many times you feel like quitting and no matter how many obstacles you might get on your way.

SPEAKER_3 (2:05)

You should get to the point where anyone else would quit and you're not gonna stop there!

Siim Land (2:10)

If the answer to those questions is no, then it's better to stop and refocus on the real things that are important for your goals.

SPEAKER_3 (2:21)

Don't let your dreams be dreams!

Siim Land (2:23)

You should never be attached to anything, whether that be your goals, your self-identity, your routines, your systems, your hopes and dreams, your social group. You know, because it might be that you're wrong, you're doing the wrong thing, and in that case, you're still not being congruent with what you want to accomplish and who you are.

SPEAKER_2 (2:49)

Wrong.

Siim Land (2:50)

You should also avoid these kinds of absolute statements as well. Things like, I'll never eat another bite of donuts.

I'm never ever going back to college. They have to kill me before they get me to talk to that kind of a person again. And you know, these absolute statements of now or never.

SPEAKER_2 (3:11)

Never ever ever.

Siim Land (3:13)

You know, of course, it's very important to have these kinds of strong beliefs and values and to stand strong for what you believe in as a person because you know, that's what creates your entire self-identity and meaning in the world. However, it doesn't mean that you can't be wrong. You know, the fact is that all of us, we're all full of shit at least some of the time. And we're never actually completely right about anything. It's the ancient Socratic paradox, which goes like this. The only thing I know is that I know nothing.

It's the one thing you can be sure of, that you can never be completely sure that you know something or that you've mastered some sort of a subject or you can stop learning. You've reached this point of mastery and knowledge.

As soon as you say something like that, then something like I'm the smartest person alive or I've become successful finally, then you're immediately disqualifying yourself and you're showing that you don't really know nothing.

SPEAKER_2 (4:29)

You're even dumber than you look.

Siim Land (4:30)

It's very important to pay attention to what you believe in, what your strong beliefs are, because they're very powerful, conviction, strong beliefs.

People aspire, people look up to those kinds of leaders because they show strength and conviction. But at the same time, it's very dangerous as well because people like Adolf Hitler, they got into power just because they believed in their own philosophy so much. They believed in the fascism and the Nazism so much that others started to believe it as well. In Adolf Hitler's own eyes, he was doing the right thing. He was doing the virtuous thing because he was blinded by his own conviction and his own beliefs.