“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver

Earlier this week Chris Guillebeau released a new (free) e-book called The Tower. As you’d expect from that chap, it’s pretty damn good and well worth reading.

Chris talks a lot about legacy projects in there. A legacy project is something we create that changes the world for the better and continues to have a positive impact long after we’re gone. Napoleon Hill’s legacy project was Think And Grow Rich. Michelangelo’s was the Sistine Chapel. Yours might be a website, or a community initiative, or your children.

One thing I have to disagree with Chris on though, is what he considers to be the purpose of life…

Instead of knowledge, pleasure, or happiness, the purpose of life is to create something meaningful that will endure after we’re gone.

I actually believe that life is inherently meaningless. You and I are but specks upon a speck in the universe. In the grand scheme of things, we don’t matter even a tiny bit. This became even more apparent to me upon reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, and learning such things as…

• 99.99 percent of all species that have ever lived on Earth are now extinct.
• Behaviorally modern human beings have existed for only about 0.0001 percent of the Earth’s history.
• The visible universe– the small fraction we know and can talk about — is a million million million million miles across (that’s a 1 with twenty-four 0′s after it).

So yeah, we’re pretty insignificant. If the Earth were to wither and die, and all of humanity ceased to exist, nobody would even notice all the newspapers stacking up on the doorstep. It would be like a single cell in our own bodies dying. No big deal.

But wait, don’t get all depressed just yet. There’s a beautiful paradox here:

Nothing we do matters, and yet it does

It matters in the sense that this one wild, precious and insignificant life of ours is the only way we get to experience the world, the universe, the hummus and the hubris. It’s our only guaranteed shot. As such, it’s wise to make the most of it.

And how do you do that?

Here’s where we get back to talking about legacy projects.

You see, although life is inherently meaningless, we humans have this nifty capability to assign meaning to our lives. And as smart dudes like Viktor Frankl have noted, a life assigned meaning is a life much more fulfilling.

In other words, you get to choose how meaningful your life is. Having a purpose makes your life better. It gives you direction. You wake up every day knowing what to do. And, more importantly, you know why you do what you do.

As I’ve written about before, my life purpose is to be the best person I can be, and to help and inspire others to become their best selves. A legacy project is a great way to turn such a purpose into something tangible. You get to see your progress and impact. You don’t waste away your days mired in mediocrity.

We’ve talked about big, ridiculous goals here before, but those are usually more of a personal nature. I want to circumnavigate the globe without flying and become fluent in the world’s five most widely spoken languages, but those goals don’t help anyone else much. At least not directly.

My legacy project is the work I do here at Disrupting the Rabblement. I hope that I’ll continue to improve as a writer, and that my articles will continue to help and empower people. I expect that if I hold a steady course with all this, I’ll end up having a significant positive impact in the lives of many.

All that to say: Having a self-assigned legacy project fulfills my self-assigned purpose, and makes my life much more enjoyable.

What’s your legacy project?

It’s a big question, so don’t feel bad if you can’t come up with an answer right away. Take your time and figure it out. Try different things, go different places, talk to different people.

Great advice from Mr. Guillebeau on this, too…

If you don’t know what to do at any given stage, start by creating something and giving something. Every day, wake up and think about these two things:

• What am I making today?
• Whom am I helping today?

Once again: What are you making? Who are you helping?

While I was in Amsterdam a few weeks back, a friend suggested I go visit her for a few days in a small Dutch city named Deventer.

This sounded like a great idea to me. I feel you don’t really get to know a country if you spend all your time in the one big smoke. Kinda like how visiting Dublin doesn’t give you a true sense of Ireland, and visiting New York doesn’t give you a true sense of America.

But as much as I would have liked to experience a different part of the Netherlands, I had to turn down that invitation. Unfortunately, I’m just not yet in a position financially where I can go off exploring random places whenever I want. Yes, I have visited six countries in the past eight weeks, but I’ve settled for a while in each place so I could get some solid work done and keep the money flowing in the right direction.

For example, the reason I chose to spend a week in Munich last month was because that city had the most work-friendly hostel I could find in the south of Germany. If I didn’t need to work so much, I would have chosen a hostel near Lake Constance instead, and spent much of my time frolicking in the surrounding countryside.

(Yes, frolicking. Tis a great word. Try use it in a conversation today, see what happens.)

But here’s the thing: I need to keep in mind that one day this will change. One day I will be able to take random day trips to random places without concerning myself so much with project deadlines and wifi access. My finances will be such that I won’t have to work 50-60 hours per week.

The trick though, is to recognize that day when it comes

To recognize it, you first need to know your enough. You need to have in mind the exact point you’re trying to reach, your definition of success.

I feel too many of us get caught up in the hamster wheel. We start working towards something, and then we can’t stop. We feel we need to work more and more, to earn more and more money. And in the process, we forget our enough. We forget to start living.

I’ve defined my enough as earning €1000 or more for three consecutive months. Once I get to that point, I should have things pretty well figured out. I’ll have proved to myself that I can earn a sustainable income online, enough to cover my monthly expenses. At that point, I should be able to start optimizing my workflow, spending less time in front of the computer, and having more frequent travel adventures.

And I should note that this doesn’t just apply to work and finances. Whether you’re trying to lose weight, learn a foreign language, or work on your flirting skills, it’s a good idea to define your enough. When do you stop working so hard and start enjoying the fruits and freedoms of your efforts?

“Someday”

I recently came across this great post and video by Devon Mills. She just quit her job and plans to travel the world for a year. As such, she’s answered my title question with a resounding “NOW!” Gotta love her reasoning:

My decision finally came down to what I can and can’t get back.

• If I quit my job and lose my income, can I ever get a job and an income back? Yes.
• If I stay with my job and spend the next year of my life feeling miserable, can I ever get that year back? No.

Devon defined her enough as having built up sufficient savings to allow her to travel the world for twelve months. Once she reached that goal, she quit the grind and started living her dream.

How about you?

Will you recognize “someday” when you see it, or will you just keep on working, oblivious, forgetting what you set out to achieve in the first place?

Since I started my big round the world trip a few weeks back, I’ve heard the same exclamation from several people: “Wow, you’re really doing it!”

My initial, unspoken reaction is usually along the lines of, “Well, yeah. I said I was going to. What did you expect?”

What I’ve come to realize though is that not many people actually do follow through and walk their big dream talk. The fact that I’m doing just that doesn’t make me feel especially proud or exceptional. Rather, it makes me feel sad. Because what’s our word worth if most of us don’t even follow through on our biggest dreams? Making them real should be of the utmost importance to us, but it seems we let them slip away much too easily.

Take that post I published a few months ago, where I asked you to share your biggest, most ridiculous goals. The response was great — more than 100 comments — but now I’m left wondering how many of you were serious. How many of you are actively working towards those goals? Or other big goals you once set for yourselves?

I know, it’s easy to let them slip. When we give up on our dreams, we’re not really disappointing anyone but ourselves. Nobody is likely to call us out. But hey, you’re the most important person in your life. You owe it to yourself not to let that dream die.

So, allow me to provide a few wake up calls…

• Hey Jacqui! How’s the singing career coming along? I fully expect to hear you dominating the airwaves when I get back to Ireland.
• Hey Andrew! How many consecutive Bethaks and Dands are you up to now? Are you on track?
• Hey Simon! Have you gotten any closer to racing across Alaska on a dog sled? What’s the next step you need to take to make that happen?
• Hey Daria! Have you made contact with The Windhorse Project yet? If not, today would be a good time to reach out.
• Hey Tracy! How are your big travel plans shaping up? Are you ready to get the adventure started?
• Hey Lucy! What’s your 5k time now? Have you cracked the hour mark for the 10k?
• Hey David! June ain’t that far away. How’s the website coming? Still writing every day?
• Hey Kelly! That diner idea wasn’t just wishful thinking, right? What have you been doing the past few months to make it real?
• Hey Jack! How many skydives are you up to now? When can I see you flying like a bird on YouTube?
• Hey Jen! Still going diving with a Great White? And how’s your website coming along? It’ll be launched by the end of the year, right?
• Hey Adrian! Won any tournaments lately? What’s it going to take to make it happen?
• Hey Sarah! How’s the prep for those hikes coming? What progress have you made in the last few months?
• Hey Josh! あなたの日本語改善くらいを持っています？
• Hey Darshan! What’s new with the astronaut dream? Have you been getting some practice piloting different aircraft?
• Hey De Zien! Are you still on track to visit those remote tribal villages? Where’s your next destination?
• Hey Raul! I don’t see much change in North Korea. WTF, man?
• Hey Daren! What’s the latest with that master’s degree? They’re waiting for you on Enceladus.
• Hey Peggy! Still on track for February 21st? Dime cosas, mi amiga.
• Hey Nigel! I’m still waiting for that first blog post. What’s the story?
• Hey Cynthia! Any progress to report on that Alzheimer’s site? And how about those last 50lbs?

Let’s hold each other accountable here. I don’t want Disrupting The Rabblement to be just another blog you check out every now and then, read something inspiring, perhaps live a little vicariously through me, and then go back to living an unfulfilled life yourself.

No, screw that.

I want you to actually change the world for the better, whether your world or the world at large (and I happen to believe you can’t change the former for the better without having a positive impact on the latter).

And I’ll call myself out here, too.

You may remember that my own big ridiculous goal (besides traveling around the world without flying) is to become uber-fluent in four foreign languages before I turn 40. But I’ve been slacking with my Spanish the past few months. If anything, my level of competency has regressed. I plan to get back into it big time next week when I set up shop in Budapest for a month or so (currently I’m in Zurich). My mini-goal will be to practice at least an hour of Spanish each day, at least thirty minutes of which will be speaking practice.

Now, how about you?

Tell me, are you true to your word? Are you doing what you said you were going to do, working hard to make your dream a reality? Or, at the very least, can you say that you’ve given it your best shot?

Note from Niall: Below is a guest post from Vlad Dolezal of Alive With Passion. To celebrate, I concocted and conducted the above video interview with said Vlad.

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Have you heard of John the rock-climbing instructor?

In many ways, John was an ordinary rock-climber. Except he had a very unusual way of testing applicants for his advanced climbing course.

He would ask the applicants to climb a certain mountain side that involved an overhang. From below, the spot looked like you were about to reach the top of the mountain. But once you scaled the last few centimetres, you realized it was just a small plateau where you could take a break, and you still had quite a way to go.

John then hid himself behind a boulder at the overhang, and simply watched the climbers’ expression as they scaled the overhang and realized they weren’t done with the climb yet.

Some of them showed disappointment when they realized they weren’t at the top yet. They were politely, but firmly refused entry to the advanced course.

But the others… their faces lit up with excitement as they realized they weren’t done yet and had more climbing ahead of them! John welcomed these with open arms.

I’m telling you this, because John had a brilliant insight into what it takes to make a good rock-climber.

And it works as a surprisingly good metaphor for life.

Many people pin their attention on a distant goal, and then strive and struggle to achieve it. Like a rock-climber who only wants to get to the top of the mountain, but hates the process. But as soon as these people reach that goal, they look around, and realize they haven’t become magically happy or satisfied. So they look for another goal, and set off again, always struggling in the moment for a distant goal.

Then there’s a second group of people. These people also set their big, mighty goals just like the first group. Except they thoroughly enjoy the process of striving for those goals! They understand that living a passionate life is about striving for worthy goals, not achieving them.

When they reach a goal, they take a few moments to bask in the sunshine, like a rock-climber who just finished a satisfying climb. But after a few moments to catch their breath, they’re off to climb the next, exciting, even bigger mountain!

Unfortunately, a lot of well-meaning people will give you advice that goes directly contrary to this. They tell you to stop always wanting more, and be finally happy with what you have. Or even better, they give you a static list of things you should achieve (a marriage, a house, a car, a high paying job. Tick, tick, tick…), and then be perfectly happy and content and have no more wants and desires.

Take a few moments to imagine that. Imagine that you had no more wants and desires, and you didn’t want to change anything in your life, or in the world.

Do you have a word for such a state?

I do. It’s called being dead.

Being alive, on the other hand, is about growth and change. That’s the very definition of life – deliberately changing the environment around you.

Now, people who tell you to go against this aren’t evil or malicious. They usually have your best interest at heart. Hey, your parents will probably tell you this in one form or another, and they certainly want the best for you!

But realize that these people are only giving you what they think is the best idea. And, unfortunately, most people have a pretty limited understanding of what truly makes you come alive.

I’m not saying you should be always dissatisfied with what you’ve got. Quite the opposite. Passionately alive people are usually very happy with what they’ve got. But they also understand that being human is not about being in any one static state, but about striving for huge goals and coming alive in the process.

That’s why I love guys like Niall, who set themselves huge, hairy, audacious goals, and encourage others to do the same. Because these folks understand what it means to be human, to be deeply, passionately alive.

So I’d like you to think about this yourself. What goals are you currently working on? Do they challenge and inspire you?

If so – brilliant! Carry on.

If not – stop reading right here and thin about it. What big, inspiring goal could you set yourself? What would make you come truly alive?

Or if that doesn’t work for you too well, you can tackle it from the other side. What goal would make you feel really good about yourself, if you archived it in the next 7 days? Come up with an answer, and then go do that!

And the next time you meet a person telling you to stop wanting big things, and settle for a comfortable, mediocre existence, you can thank them for their advice (they do have your best interest at heart), and then ignore them and do the things you know will make you come deeply passionately alive – striving for an inspiring goal!

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Vlad Dolezal recently relaunched his blog as Alive With Passion, and he now writes about living your life in a way that makes you feel deeply, passionately alive. Check it out to understand what makes you come truly alive!

Can’t see the video? Click here.

Last week I told a guy I met here in Burgos about the 5 Tongues of Awesome, aka my goal of becoming fluent in the five most widely-spoken languages in the world.

No sooner had I put it out there than he was shooting it down. “You should learn German,” he said. “That would be more useful to you than Mandarin, Hindi or Arabic.”

I tried in vain to emphasize the whole most-widely spoken thing, but he wasn’t getting it. He was convinced that German was a superior language, and that I’d be wasting my time learning anything but. In the end I just let it go, reminding myself of two things:

1. You can’t change someone’s mind unless they want it to be changed.
2. It doesn’t matter if other folks think your goal is ridiculous. All that matters is that it’s meaningful to you.

I also couldn’t help but marvel at how prone we humans are to project our personal beliefs and desires onto other people. That chap was so smitten with German that he was willing to piss all over the dream of some guy he’d just met. I mean, dude, you go learn fucking German if you want to, nobody’s stopping you. But don’t tell me I should learn German. This is my dream, not yours. You don’t get to learn your favorite languages through me. You go do that yourself.

I feel lucky these days that I’m able to recognize such dream-zappers pretty quick and take appropriate action (i.e. ignore them). Rewind a few years and such a person would have had me seriously second-guessing myself, and perhaps even compromising my goals.

After the great response to the goal sharing post last week, I know a lot of you reading here have your own big goals that you’re working towards. I‘m hoping you won’t fall victim to the narrow-minded projections of other people, honorable as their intentions might be. Lend such folks an occasional ear, sure, because they may bring up some important points that you’ve failed to consider. But refuse to let them belittle or ridicule what you’re trying to do.

And likewise, be careful not to belittle or ridicule the dreams of others. Their dreams don’t have to make sense to you. It’s the spirit of the goal that matters, not the goal itself.

…

How about you? Have you had to deal with many people pissing on your dreams? How do you handle it?

Can’t see the video? Click here.

So I’m thinking we have the makings of a pretty nifty community here at Disrupting the Rabblement. These past few months have seen more and more of you fine readers chiming in with comments, and I’m conversing with an ever-growing number of you via Twitter, Facebook and email.

Through all of those channels, I’ve been able to hear some very cool stories about what big goals and adventures you’ve all got going on. And it’s inspiring stuff. In fact, connecting with all you fellow rabble rousers online has been something of a lifesaver for me here in Spain, where I’ve found it difficult to meet free-thinking proactive types, especially with the language barrier. I imagine I’d be one depressed and frustrated hombre right now if not for all the support and positivity I receive via the big web machine. (Muchas gracias!)

Now here’s what I want to do today: Introduce you fine folks to one another.

In a minute I’ll ask you to go leave a comment, but I don’t want you to leave just any old comment. Nope, I want you to really dig deep and hit me with your biggest, most lofty, audacious and ridiculous goal. You know, the one that’s likely to draw laughs and eye-rolls from all the old folks back in the village and all the lads in the pub. Except you don’t have to worry about such reactions here at Disrupting the Rabblement, because we’re all about thinking big and tackling the impossible, screw the naysayers and dream-slayers.

I’ll get the ball rolling by announcing a perfectly unreasonable goal that’s been brewing in my mind for the past few weeks. You already know of my intention to spend 3+ years circumnavigating the globe without flying, but this is something different:

The Five Tongues of Awesome

Don’t worry, it’s not as kinky as it sounds

The Five Tongues of Awesome is what I’ve dubbed my dream of becoming fluent in the world’s five most widely-spoken languages. Those five would be (as measured by number of native speakers, according to Wikipedia):

1. Mandarin
2. Spanish
3. English
4. Hindi-Urdu
5. Arabic

Being fluent in those five languages would mean I’d be able to communicate effectively with approximately 1/3 of all people living on this big rock we call home. Which methinks would be pretty damn cool.

And I don’t just mean conversationally fluent. I’d be aiming to reach a level of fluency that would allow me to deliver a clear and effective speech in front of at least 100 native speakers of each language, and be comfortable handling Q&A afterwards.

Now every goal needs a deadline, so I’m going to give myself until the age of 40 to achieve this. As of this writing, I’m 29 years old. I’m already pretty handy at the auld English and I’m almost three months deep into learning Spanish (steadily approaching conversational fluency). I know nothing of the other three languages on the above list, other than they look and sound funny.

I figure with at least two years of consistent study and practice at each of those languages, together with some healthy doses of immersion, I should be able to achieve my goal, while having plenty of adventures along the way

Your turn!

Alright, over to you. Let me know of your biggest, craziest goal via the comments. Put it out there, make it that bit more tangible. Let’s all see the legendary company we keep by reading this blog.

…

P.S. Even if you don’t feel like sharing, be sure to check out the first comment below for details on a special offer for DtR readers.

But then along comes Derek Sivers with a great TED Talk, citing a bunch of research which proves that “telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen.”

Here’s the talk, just three minutes in length…

Can’t see the video? Click here.

I can’t knock what Derek is saying. I’ll give that research the benefit of the doubt and assume it’s all true, that most people are indeed better off keeping their goals to themselves.

But here’s the thing: I’m not most people. I’m not the average or the mean or the majority. I’ve tested for me, as an individual with my own unique set of ever-changing beliefs, values, motivations and circumstances. And as that person, announcing my goals to the world has proven to be a pretty good idea.

But that’s just me. You have to test for you. What works for one person or even a group of people at one time and in one place may not work for you here and now. Or maybe it will. But you can’t ever know for sure until you test for yourself.

A few other examples to illustrate this point:

• Back in January there was a great debate on Think Traffic about whether it’s a good idea to allow comments on your blog. Pat Flynn argued absolutely, while Ev Bogue argued definitely not. I have a hard time believing either guy is wrong. Their opposing approaches each work great for them.
• David Damron recently debated Leo Babauta about the importance of goals. David is a big believer in setting goals, whereas Leo has found that his life works great without them. I think they’re both right: David’s way works for David, and Leo’s way works for Leo.
• Steve Pavlina gets up early. Tim Ferriss gets up late. Which is the better approach? Depends on the person. Some folks are at their best while the sun rises, others not so much.

How to test for you

The only way to find out what works for you is via trial and error. No getting around it. You have to jump in, get your hands dirty, throw a whole bunch of shit at the wall and see what sticks. Keep what works and discard the rest.

You can’t stand there waiting to take action until a sure thing comes along, because there is no sure thing. There’s just what works for some people, and there’s what works for you. The former you can spend all day reading about on the Internet. The latter you can only discover through experimentation.

Question: What works for you that doesn’t work for most people?

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UPDATE: Just came across this excellent TED Talk from Tim Harford, where he talks about the value of trial and error, and the curse of what he calls the God Complex.

Just before moving to Cork in late December I wrote a post called The plan of attack: How I intend to earn money, gain influence, and make a difference, in which I listed out all the things I wanted to accomplish before I left for Spain. Now it’s time to look back and see how I fared. Such reviews are important methinks. They help me understand my limitations and get better at setting realistic goals. Hopefully you’ll find these reviews interesting, too.

I had the following goals for my four months in Cork:

1. Release a free manifesto
2. Release a paid product
3. Speak at three or more conferences/universities
4. Speak on Irish radio
5. Appear on Irish national television
6. Secure a spot as a columnist for a large Irish newspaper
7. Guest blog at least once every fortnight
8. Post an interview at least once every fortnight
9. Take a trip to Dublin and Northern Ireland
10. Take a trip to England, Scotland and Wales
11. Build community, help spread knowledge

Let’s run through each goal to see how it actually played out. Green for success, red for failure, other colors by mistake.

1. Release a free manifesto

I accomplished this on schedule, releasing Disrupting the Rabblement: How to think for yourself, live your dreams, and piss off some zombies at the end of January. I was very happy with how it was received. I’ve gotten lots of positive feedback about it and by my best estimation, the work has now been downloaded just over 1,000 times. Giggidy.

If you haven’t read the manifesto yet, you can click here to download it now (PDF format)

2. Release a paid product

Initially I was aiming to release my first paid product at the end of February, but then I decided to build an entire online course, so I pushed back the release date to mid-March. On March 17th, I beta launched A Course In Courage. The goal of the course is to help other people become more courageous and live their dreams, all for the price of one cup of coffee per week.

While there is still lots of room for improvement in the course, the feedback I’ve gotten from reviewers and participants has been primarily positive. Not many people have signed up for A Course In Courage however, and so it hasn’t generated anything close to the revenue that I was hoping for. I believe I’m mostly failing with the marketing side of things, so I’ll be working hard on that going forward.

3. Speak at three or more conferences/universities

I was hoping to do this in March and April, and it was largely dependent on a lucrative launch of my paid product. The idea to go into universities and show them how I was able to make money online by my own efforts, without having to rely on traditional employment or suck up to gatekeepers. Of course, I couldn’t talk that talk without first walking that walk, so as it turned out I didn’t even look for such speaking opportunities. Hopefully I’ll be in a position to do so later this year.

All that said, I did get some public speaking experience these past few months. I attended several local Toastmasters clubs and participated in Table Topics, and even acted as the guest lead for a meeting in March (thanks, Pat!). Then there was my well-received Pecha Kucha presentation back in January, and my second foray into stand-up comedy a couple of weeks ago. Videos for those…

4. Speak on Irish radio

I’ll call this mission accomplished. Twice I was able to get on one of Ireland’s largest radio stations, Today FM. The first time was to play Ah-Yeah-Okay on the Ray Foley Show (mp3), and the second time was to discuss minimalism with Ray D’Arcy (mp3). Ideally, I would have also been able to get on the radio to discuss online entrepreneurship, but again I felt I needed to have some real success under my belt before I could talk about that on the airwaves.

5. Appear on Irish national television

Fail. I didn’t even give this one a good effort, apart from sending an email to inquire about tickets to Pat Kenny’s Frontline (no reply). As with the last two goals, I didn’t feel confident going after this one without first having some entrepreneurial success behind me.

6. Secure a spot as a columnist for a large Irish newspaper

This is a goal I feel I could have achieved if I had pushed for it, but I really didn’t put forth any effort. I would still like to do this in future, writing monthly about the mobile lifestyle I’m creating for myself, but I’m aware that the task would require some serious energy and attention. Can’t go submitting just any old crap to a national newspaper.

7. Guest blog at least once every fortnight

I failed miserably at this, only contributing a couple of guest posts to smaller blogs over the past four months, and those only came about by invitation. Apart from a pair of failed submissions, I didn’t go hard after any game-changing guest posts on big blogs. I underestimated how much of my time and energy would be required to do that.

8. Post an interview at least once every fortnight

I started off in January doing an interview every fortnight, and I liked how the posts turned out. However, the interviews didn’t generate a lot of traffic and didn’t seem to resonate much with my regular readers. Given how much work I put into them, I determined I wasn’t getting enough return on my investment and pulled the plug.

I’m still calling this mission accomplished though. I gave it my best shot before realizing that interviews weren’t a good fit for my blog. No failure there.

For those of you interested in checking out the interview posts, here are the links:

• Better business through uncertainty: An interview with advanced riskologist Tyler Tervooren
• Building castles and laying foundations: An interview with radical minimalist Nina Yau
• How to travel the world as a full-time language hacker: An interview with Irish polyglot Benny Lewis
• How to travel the world indefinitely: An interview with pro nomad Mark Webster
• How to make serious money doing what you love (and without quitting your day job): An interview with Emmett Cooke

9. Take a trip to Dublin and Northern Ireland

I’m in Dublin now, but only so I can fly to Madrid, and I didn’t get close to visiting Northern Ireland. Trying to figure out this self-employment thing and get some sustainable income flowing, I didn’t think it wise to take chunks of time off to go traveling.

10. Take a trip to England, Scotland and Wales

Same as the above. No trip to the UK for me these past few months. Perhaps I’ll be in a position to remedy that after Spain.

11. Build community, help spread knowledge

This was three goals rolled into one. First I wanted to create a Meetup group for Cork-based people who want to make a positive difference in the world. That became Cork World Changers, and through it I was able to meet some great people and share and receive lots of value. It looks like it’s going to continue on strong without me now, which I’m delighted about. Many thanks to everyone involved.

Second, I wanted to start a Mastermind group, Skyping with some cool people every week or so, bouncing ideas and encouragement off each other. That came to fruition when Spyros Heniadis asked if I’d like to join his group, along with Nada from miniMOMist. It’s been a great experience.

Finally, I wanted to volunteer at least one evening per week, sharing web design and computer skills with others. This I failed at. I did deliver an extended web design class at a local community center a few weeks back, and I did volunteer for an afternoon at a local Oxfam shop, but that was the extent of my volunteer activities in Cork. No excuses here, I simply didn’t make it a priority to seek out more opportunities.

Overall

So I reached 5 out of my 11 goals during my four months in Cork. I’m okay with that. I intentionally set my goals high to push myself. I believe it’s better to set big, exciting goals and fall short than it is to set small, boring goals and reach them. There’s a bar chart out there somewhere that depicts that idea nicely, but fecked if I can find it.

If I could do the last four months over again though, I definitely wouldn’t set so many goals for such a short period of time. Experience has shown me how distractions (some welcome, some not) can sneak in, projects can take longer or become more complex than expected, motivation can come and go.

New goals

Looking forward to my four months in Spain I’m mainly going to be focused on just two goals:

1. Become fluent in Spanish
2. Start earning at least $1,000 per month online

I’ll need to be much more disciplined going forward to keep my priorities straight and stay on track. It’s actually pretty cool that I’m moving to a new city in a new country where I don’t know anyone. It’s like hitting the reset button, starting from scratch, getting a do-over.

Destination X

Speaking of goals, and before I wrap this up, I want to mention a recent product released by David Damron. It’s called Destination X: Your Guide to Accomplishing Anything (affiliate link). David sent me a review copy and I liked it a whole helluva lot, enough to recommend it to you folks. You’ve probably noticed by now that I don’t recommend a lot of products on here, but this one is worth checking out.

Note that you’ll only get full value from Destination X if you’re willing to sit down and go through the worksheets. It’s not just an ebook that you can skim through and expect it to change your world.

If Destination X sounds like your cup of tea, and you buy it through my affiliate link, forward me along your email receipt (himself at ndoherty dot com) and I’ll happily throw in a 30-minute Skype call so we can chat about goal setting and whatever it is you’re working towards.

…

Alright, time to go get my Spanish on

I have four months left in Ireland. I fly to Spain on May 3rd. My flight is booked, nonrefundable. ¡Olé!

But I have a lot of things I want to accomplish before then. My main goals can be summarized like so:

• Start earning enough money to cover all my expenses.
• Build my audience.
• Make a significant positive difference in people’s lives, especially here in Ireland.

I believe the key to achieving all those goals is the same: Provide more value to more and more people. That means getting out there and learning more, having more experiences and writing my ass off to share what works for me.

To keep focused and on track I’ve set myself some mini-goals and milestones for the next four months. Here they are:

1. Release a free manifesto

This will be at the end of January. It will be called Disrupting the Rabblement and it will delve deeper into the theme of this whole project I’ve started. I’m already working on the outline and I’m excited to get into the real writing. I believe the manifesto will be a helpful guide for anyone feeling stuck or unsatisfied with their life.

(Why free? Because I want to grow my audience. This blog doesn’t have a big enough readership yet for me to start selling premium products. Releasing the DtR manifesto as a paid product would probably result in very few sales. Giving it away for free increases the likelihood of it being read and shared by a lot of people, getting more minds familiar with my name and message. Hopefully that will help make the next thing a success…)

2. Release a paid product

I haven’t settled on an exact idea for this yet, but I’ll be releasing it by the end of February. I may end up creating a course or writing another guide. A lot will depend on the success of #1 above. I’m hoping I’ll get a plenty of feedback from that which will help me figure out what else I have to offer people.

3. Speak at three or more conferences/universities

I plan to get some public speaking experience in March and April. By then I hope to have had some tangible success and be in a position where I can offer advice to other people who are looking to build an audience or make money online. I’d especially like to inspire more of an entrepreneurial mindset in students, so they’re not as dependent on finding a 9-to-5 job as soon as they leave school.

4. Speak on Irish radio

This is actually two goals rolled into one. I would like to get on Irish national radio any which way I can, and methinks I’ll be able to achieve that fairly easily by playing Ah-Yeah-OK on the Ray Foley show some afternoon (I’ve been listening in for the last few weeks but it seems they haven’t been playing it much during the run up to Christmas). This is more for fun than anything.

The second part of this goal is to appear on any local/national radio show as a guest and talk about topics related to my blog (e.g. small business, personal development, minimalism, lifestyle design, etc.). D’Mudder tells me that The Business with George Lee on RTE Radio1 might be just the job.

5. Appear on Irish national television

This is perhaps the most ambitious goal on my list, but I’m dreaming big here so no holding back. The logical next step after doing radio would be to try television. I’m not a big fan of television but it would be a way of getting my message to a lot of people who might otherwise never hear it. I’m not even sure though which TV program would be suitable for me to appear on as a guest. Maybe Nationwide?

Like the speaking engagements and radio invite, this will be difficult to make happen unless I have some early success with my business. Nobody will care what I have to say if I’m not walking the walk. As such, a LOT depends on my paid product (#2 on this list) selling well.

6. Secure a spot as a columnist for a large Irish newspaper

Again, dreaming big. Ideally this would be a national newspaper, but I’d also be happy with a writing gig for a large local or regional paper. This would be another way for my message to reach people it wouldn’t otherwise reach (More on this: Chris Guillebeau explains the importance of having multiple spheres of influence).

I would not expect to be paid by the newspaper, and I’d like to write my column just once per month, twice tops.

7. Guest blog at least once every fortnight

This will help me network with other bloggers and grow my audience. I’m planning to reach out to bloggers who I really admire and highly respect.

8. Post an interview at least once every fortnight

If I’m interviewing other bloggers, this provides similar advantages to guest blogging. I’ve also found that I come across lots of good ideas while doing research for interviews (like this one with Corbett Barr and Everett Bogue). It’s amazing what gold you can find by digging through someone’s archives.

However, I don’t just want to interview bloggers. I have a few friends (and I’m sure I’ll make many more in the coming months) who have figured out how to make a nice chunk of passive income online without having a blog. I’d like to pick their brains and share their stories.

9. Take a trip to Dublin and Northern Ireland

There are some cool people in these places I want to meet, such as Clare Herbert and Ryan Renfrew.

10. Take a trip to England, Scotland and Wales

Shame on me, I’ve never been to Scotland or Wales, so I might as well remedy that. While in England, I’d very much like to meet Mark Boyle, the Irish guy who has been living there without money since 2008.

11. Build community, help spread knowledge

I’ve been thinking a lot about community lately, and I expect I’ll be writing much more about it here in the coming months. My brain is still chewing on a few ideas, but for the sake of this exercise I’ll throw out some tangible targets to aim for:

• Create a Meetup group for people who want to change the world. Meet twice weekly in Cork. Have at least five people show up at every meeting in March and April.
• Start a Mastermind group with three other people. Do a weekly conference call.
• Volunteer at least one evening per week, sharing web design and computer skills with others. (I would LOVE to get involved with something like Dave Eggers talks about in this TED talk. Following the same model, Roddy Doyle has set up a tutoring center in Dublin. Cork, and every city in Ireland for that matter, would benefit from similar.)

Okay, so how do I actually accomplish all of those things?

I’ll need to be very disciplined with my writing. That will have to be my priority. I’ll need to establish a routine, getting up at 6am or earlier (I’ll experiment with 5am and afternoon naps) to workout and write. The rest of my day will be spent in the company of remarkable people, doing a few side projects, networking online and reading books.

If I can stay focused and keep all that up through January and February, I should have much of the network and the financial support I need to start making the other goals a reality. That is, if I just knuckle down and do what I know I’m capable of doing, I expect my audience will grow exponentially and I’ll generate some decent income from what I release at the end of February.

The point of this post

First, I know by now that I’m more likely to get up off my ass and do something when I announce my plans publicly. If I don’t post all of the above on here, I can always let myself off the hook later. Ah sure nobody but me will know if I failed, so I won’t worry about it! No, better to raise the stakes a little, put some pressure on myself to succeed.

Maybe I’m biting off more than I can chew, but I’m intentionally setting the bar high so I’ll push myself. If I accomplish even half of the things on the list above, I’m sure I’ll be able to look back fondly on my few months in Ireland. To quote a wise turtle…

“The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that our aim is too low and we make it.” – Michaelangelo

Second, I’ve learned that helpful doors have a tendency to open when more people know where you’re trying to get to. To give one example, back in November I was a week away from going to San Francisco and I still hadn’t arranged accommodation. Then I got a text message out of the blue from a friend (thanks, Erin!) saying I could stay with her parents there if needed. Happy days. But if I hadn’t been telling everyone with ears about my upcoming trip, that offer would never have come my way.

So who knows, maybe some TV or radio producer will stumble across this post and see that I’m trying to get 15 minutes on the airwaves. Maybe she’ll like my stuff and hook me up.

The lesson here is that you have to broadcast your desires. If nobody knows what you’re looking for, nobody can help you find it.

And my third and final reason for writing all this, is my readers. I’m trying to lay down a blueprint here, so others will be able to follow along behind me and learn what they need to do to achieve their own dreams. Or, at the very least, they’ll be able to see what doesn’t work and not waste their time trying similar things

What’s your plan of attack?

What unrealistic goals do you have? Being completely honest with yourself, how likely are you to actually achieve them? How can you improve those odds?

So I’ve officially ended my diet/exercise experiment. If you recall, the goal was to add 20lbs of muscle, in 6 weeks, on a vegan diet, while doing just one hour of exercise per week, as inspired by Tim Ferriss’ report of gaining 32 lbs of muscle in 28 days.

Last Sunday, right before my sixth workout and just about halfway through the experiment, I took all my body measurements and found that I had gained approximately 4 lbs of muscle and 4 lbs of fat. Projecting forward the best case scenario, that meant I was on course to finish the 6 weeks with a 16 lb weight gain, half of which would have been fat. I wasn’t okay with that, so I decided to bail on the experiment.

Well, kinda.

I’ve accepted that there’s no way I’m going to reach my originally stated goal, so from that point of view the experiment is over. Turns out that, at least for me using this method, it’s not possible to put on 20lbs of muscle in six weeks on a vegan diet while doing only one hour of exercise per week. I know, some of you are shocked and amazed

However, I’m not quite ready to give up on muscle building completely. I learned from my experiment that I quite enjoy the slow weight training, so I’ll continue doing that once a week. My trainer records every exercise I do and it’s obvious that my strength has increased significantly over the past three weeks. I like that. I’ll also be adding back in some regular cardio work, because I’ve really been missing it during the past three weeks.

As regards the diet, I’m abandoning the meal plan altogether. I do intend to consume upwards of 3,000 calories per day, but I won’t be measuring every gram of carbs, fat and protein that I put in my body. After three weeks of carefully planned and measured meals, it’s a welcome relief to be able to eat whatever I feel like again.

What I didn’t learn from all this

Quite a few people — both in person and online — told me before I started this experiment that it was unrealistic and that I was unlikely to succeed. And those people turned out to be right. But the funny thing is that I have no regrets about doing the experiment. I’m not sitting here cursing myself for not listening to those people. And that’s because I now know some things for sure, from direct experience.

There’s that saying that you always regret the things you haven’t done more than the things you have. If I had agreed with the naysayers at the start and accepted that what I was trying to do was impossible, there always would have been a nagging voice in my head saying, But what if they were wrong?

You see, I just had to try it for myself. For me, trying equals succeeding. Well, not just trying, but trying hard. I’ve failed at lots of things in life, but the only failures I feel bad about are the ones where I didn’t give it my all.

Don’t try, you might fail!

So what? No big deal. What’s the point in doing only what you know will succeed? Where would mankind be if people only did what they knew would work? You’ve heard all those stories about Thomas Edison and Michael Jordan and other famous names who attributed much of their success to a willingness to fail. I believe that.

So, you might think I learned a lesson here. And I believe I did learn many things. But one thing I didn’t learn is that you should never try to do what other people think is crazy or impossible. I never want to learn that lesson. I’m terrified of what I’d miss out on if I did.

What crazy or impossible goal do you have? Why don’t you give it a shot? Go all out and see if you can make it happen. Even if there’s only a tiny chance that you’ll succeed, that’s still significantly better than your chance of success (i.e. ZERO) if you don’t try at all.

And if you do try and end up failing, trust me, that feels way better than just accepting defeat without trying at all.