I’ve lost track on how much Elon musk is worth. It’s probably not even worth putting in this post due to the fact that it will probably be much higher by the time you’re reading this. Long story short, Elon Musk is the richest man on the planet.
When it comes to goal setting, if you’re not listening to what he has to say, you’re missing out. In this article, we are going to go over some of Elon Musk’s tips on setting goals.
Setting Timelines: The Power of Limited Timeframes in Achieving Goals
Elon Quote: “If you give yourself 30 days to clean your home, it will take you 30 days. But if you give yourself 3 hours, it will take 3 hours. The same applies to your goals, ambitions, and potential.”
The essence of Elon Musk’s quote lies in understanding Parkinson’s Law: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.”
If you allocate more time for a task than it requires, it will inevitably take up that entire duration to complete.
This is why Elon has been accomplishing goals at a pace which many deem impossible and unrealistic.
When you set your goals, make sure to set a time frame that is realistic, but also challenging.
Use asynchronous communication
Elon preaches using anything that has a delayed response. This is because you don’t waste time on unnecessary conversations.
When you use email, text messages, calls or any other asynchronous communication format, you give yourself the opportunity to put your work first and then answer when you get free time.
This is the opposite of the approach we usually take of responding to every message that comes our way & conversating through long phone calls.
Here are some added tips:
- Avoid phone calls
- Decline Meetings
- Shut Off Notifications
- Set Clear Communication Boundaries With Your Team
Embracing Humility: The Pursuit of Being Less Wrong
“You should take the approach that you’re wrong. Your goal is to be less wrong.”
When most people set goals, they go in with automatic assumption that what they’re doing is right and that they know everything. Approaching goal setting with the mindset of assuming your wrong and constantly trying to be less wrong will help you achieve goals with much more ease.
- Encourages Flexibility: By accepting that you might be wrong, you open yourself up to the possibility of adjusting and refining your goals and the strategies to achieve them. This flexibility can lead to better, more realistic goal setting and a more efficient path to achieving those goals.
- Promotes Learning: If your objective is to be “less wrong,” then every mistake or setback is an opportunity to learn. This attitude fosters resilience and continued effort in the face of difficulties, which is often required to achieve ambitious goals.
- Stimulates Creativity and Innovation: When you admit that your initial idea might be wrong, you open your mind to alternate solutions. This can stimulate creativity and innovation, which can be crucial in problem-solving and overcoming obstacles towards your goals.
- Boosts Openness to Feedback: Believing you might be wrong will make you more open to feedback from others. This can offer new perspectives, help identify blind spots, and contribute to more effective strategies for achieving your goals.
Focusing on Practical Problems Over High-Concept Ideas
“I don’t spend my time pontificating about high-concept things; I spend my time solving engineering and manufacturing problems.”
Elon focuses on practical issues when it comes to achieving his goals. He is not the type of person to sit around and think about abstract ideas or talk about possibilities.
Benefits Of Focusing On Practical Problems
1. Focus on Practicality: Musk implies that spending time on high-concept ideas might not be as productive as addressing tangible problems. When setting goals, it’s essential to ensure they are practical, realistic, and grounded in reality.
2. Emphasize Problem-Solving: Goals often involve overcoming obstacles or solving problems. By focusing on problem-solving, as Musk does, you engage directly with the challenges that stand in the way of your goals. This hands-on approach can be more effective than simply thinking about the issues in abstract terms.
3. Encourage Action-Oriented Thinking: Musk’s quote suggests an action-oriented approach. In terms of goal-setting, this translates to setting goals that prompt specific actions, rather than vague ambitions. This could mean defining clear steps to achieve the goal, which can make the process more manageable and progress more measurable.
4. Prioritize Relevant and Immediate Issues: By focusing on engineering and manufacturing problems, Musk addresses the issues directly relevant to his goals and his company’s success. Similarly, when setting goals, it can be beneficial to prioritize those that address immediate and pertinent challenges.
Feedback Loops
“I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. ”
Feedback loops, also known as self reflection is an excellent way to set and monitor goals.
Self reflection is good to see what you did good, what you could do better, and all the in between.
My personal favorite way to self reflect is by journaling. When I get to the end of the day, I write down what I accomplished and what I could do better. This way the next day I’m more prepared to do what I have to do.
Love What You Do
“There have to be reasons that you get up in the morning and you want to live. Why do you want to live? What’s the point? What inspires you?”
When it comes to Elon, it’s very clear that anything he takes part of, he loves. The idea of going to mars, solar energy, electric cars, he loves them all.
If you’re going to be doing something every single day, you need to love it. That passion is going to keep you going day in and day out. Even when motivation dwindles (according to David Goggins, motivation is a bunch of hogwash), you will keep on pushing.
Have Great People Around You To Motivate You
“Join a group that is amazing that you really respect or if you are building a company you’ve got to gather great people.”
There’s plenty of talk about one man businesses. And while that business model is viable due to the great technology today. You need to understand that regardless you need to someone surround yourself with people that motivate you.
Whether it’s following like minded individuals on social media or joining a group like Elon said, you need to have an environment where your passion is built and cultivated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Elon Musk’s unique approach to setting goals is what sets him apart from the crowd. While most successful people follow the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) approach, Musk advocates for a radically different model, known as ‘First Principles Thinking.’ This concept requires breaking a situation down to the most fundamental truths and then reasoning up from there.
“I think it’s important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy. The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy. We are essentially doing this because it’s like something else that was done or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths…and then reason up from there.” – Elon Musk
Elon has had many notable goals throughout his time, but his most prominent goal to date is to have life on mars.
They say if you shoot for the moon and miss, you’ll still end up in the stars. Setting high goals like Elon will give the opportunity to be extremely successful, even if you don’t hit the goal you set out for.
