How to Reach Your Highest Potential by Reverse Engineering

“People usually don’t focus on habits because goals sound much sexier in our minds”

– Mark Manson.

It happens every January, new year and new me. Ironic that the new year usually brings along with it many unfulfilled resolutions.

Even though we all make goals to strive for in the new year ahead, more times often than not we don’t set a plan to achieve that goal and/or resolution.

We need to start reframing our new year’s resolutions and new goals for the year. One way to do this is by reverse engineering your goals in order to build habits.

If you are unfamiliar with reverse engineering or what it means for your new year’s resolution, it’s a pretty simple concept. Reverse engineering is visioning the end goal and imagining what is required of you to get there.

 

“The only way for any of this to work is for you start with your north star and reverse engineer from there given the context of who you are and what you want out of this one shot we’ve all got.”

Gary Vee.

By reverse engineering your goals it allows you to identify what you need to do in order to take action, thus in turn building habits.

The first step to reverse engineering is to first ask yourself a few simple questions. The question(s) shouldn’t be how do I get there but instead should focus on what steps do I need to take, one-by-one, in order to lead a path to that goal.

Break down your questions, step by step, while matching each step to your priorities. A few example questions that you may want to ask are:

What do you need to accomplish the goal?

What do you need to know?

What skills do you need?

How long will it take for you to get there?

However, you should always ask yourself this one question “Why am I even going down this route in the first place” — the answer should always be happiness and fulfillment

An advantage of reverse engineering is that it provides clarity on a long-term goal by laying out the steps needed to get you there. By reverse engineering, you will begin to build habits as “It’s better to invest your limited focus and energy on building habits rather than specific goals”.

Always start at the end goal and move backward. Always have your end game or goal in mind and always be looking ahead.

It’s imperative that you make sure that every step that you take is aligned with the energy needed to obtain that goal. Begin to hold yourself accountable for the day-to-day actions need to achieve your goals.

A tactic to do this is to break down your new year’s resolution into monthly resolutions. Choose a habit of choice and do it every day for 30 days.

Anyone is capable of doing something for 30 days and once that 30 days is up it will begin to feel routine and automatic. Making your goal 30 days closer.

“Aint nobody gonna give you nothing…you gotta take that shit”

– Rexx Life Jav.

At the end of the day, nothing matters but the work that you put in. It’s all about the work, you have to put in to get in. If you aspire to be something, the first step is to live it. If you want to be an entrepreneur, start by living day by day how an entrepreneur would live. Do the things that they do.

If you want to be a musician, start by simply living the life of a musician. Study your favorite artists, play or perform every day. If you want to be a doctor, live the life of a doctor. Start looking at med school or pre-requisites you may need for the application process.

Do all of the necessary steps required to lead you on that path. Live in the world that you wish to create. Live it and do it.

“If you want something bad enough, you need to work harder, but you also need to work faster”

– Gary Vee.

No matter your end goal or aspirations, study the landscape. Always be learning. Look at the different methods or how people are doing things in that landscape. Then apply them to your own life efforts and habits by making them your own.

Be a student but never plagiarize someone else’s habits — as you can’t rely on the patterns and habits of others but can only do what is right for you.

If you don’t know where to start, don’t dwell on a starting point but just start. Just create. Sometimes you just have to do things for the simple reason that just because you can. Begin building the necessary habits by doing.

One is always greater than zero and small wins are better than not winning at all because you didn’t want to play the game.

Discipline yourself to hustle harder and to execute on ideas. Train your mind to do something, even if it’s just a little bit every day. Then keep adding a bit more and more, every day, every week, every month.

Stop thinking of life changes and remarkable things and just start doing them to make them a reality. Get it done and run the marathon.

If you want to build a larger network, attend a meeting that interest you meetup.com. If you want to build professional development skills, go to Udemyor Khan Academy to acquire the necessary skills. If you want to learn how to code, register for Code Academy.

There are resources out there for us to us, we have to utilize them.

“Stop making everything you do about accomplishing some fucking goal”

– Mark Manson

Change your mindset to overcome self-doubt, pressure, and fear. Don’t be afraid to fail, as a thousand tiny failures will ultimately lead to your life’s greatest or biggest success.

We all have nothing to lose.

Reverse engineering your goals break down your goals into achievable habits. However, it is critical to be patient as things that matter, like your goals, all take time to acquire.

The journey is long and difficult but there’s joy in working on habits over a long period of time. Always think of your end goal, reverse engineer the steps needed to get there. Build the habits.