Updated my branding a bit... Hope you like it! I wanted my branding to reflect more closely where my heart is.

I want to help you with money, but I also want to help you live a life that has meaning. As a Christian, that's really important to me. Now, I won't be sharing a ton of insights from that perspective, as I want my message to reach outside those circles.

As the header image says, I want to help you set goals, create a plan, and leave a legacy. This is more than a tagline... it's a path to follow.

Goals help you set a direction. Goals (especially ones that line up with personal values) help you do things of meaning.

Once your goals are set, you need a plan. You need to create a map to follow.

Once you have a map, you're on your way to creating something that's bigger than yourself. Well, at least that's the hope. For that to work, you have to set goals that are bigger than you.

So, let's talk goal setting. Below are a few things to consider.

Five steps to setting better goals

What motivates you?

We all have things we've "always" wanted to do. But if we "always" desire it, but have never done it, how important is it?

If that's the case for you, it's likely it's just not something that really motivates you.

When setting goals, it's key to set goals that truly motivate you.

Goals that motivate you are typically goals that align with your values. Your values are consistent principles that identify your internal motivations.

When you force yourself to do something because you should, you'll only do it until your motivation dwindles. It goes back to the book Tiny Habits when they talk about forming a new habit. You want to make the habit small enough so that you can do it even with low motivation.

Relying on motivation is going to result in a temperamental goal. Setting goals that align with internal motivations and values will set you up for success.

Make sure they're balanced by life domain

Life is not all work and no play.

A balanced life requires that you set goals in all life domains. If your life is not balanced, you cannot create a true legacy.

I set goals for these areas of life:

• Family

• Spiritual

• Work

• Financial

• Community

• Health

• Personal

There will be different periods of life where one or two domains are more important than others. That's okay. But we want to make sure that they all get attention.

Have a plan

Without a plan, your goals mean nothing. I'll dig into this a bit more in the future, but for now, let me introduce you to the SMART goal-setting framework. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Attainable

• Relevant

• Time-bound

Let me briefly hit on each with my personal definitions.

Specific: clear and easily understandable to a 10-year-old.

Measurable: can you answer clearly whether it has been achieved with a yes or a no?

Attainable: how likely is it for you to achieve? It should be realistic, but not easy.

Relevant: does it line up with your ultimate goals and values?

Time-bound: when will you achieve it by?

On top of this, you need to create an action plan. That means 3-4 steps that you're going to take to achieve it.

Write it down

The act of writing down your goals is a small thing, but that small commitment makes it more likely that you'll achieve the goal.

Performance focused, not achievement-focused

When you make goals achievement-focused, sometimes the result will be out of your hands.

If you instead set goals based on a performance metric, it makes it more specific and measurable.

Sometimes you cannot get out of setting an achievement goal, which is fine. But you want to make sure you are at least thinking about the performance or actions needed to make the goal happen.

Resources

If you want to learn more, James Clear has a great article on goal setting here.

I do want to dig into this more in a future letter, so feel free to shoot me any resources or methods you've used for setting goals.

Should you invest in Bitcoin and/or Ethereum?

This week I posted part 2 of a discussion on cryptocurrencies with Stephen Wealthy. We talk about mining and staking, as well as give recommendations on how to get started. Listen to that here.

Based on that discussion I did a thread on Twitter talking about asymmetric bets.

Look for an article on that soon!

Question for the day

Do you own any cryptocurrencies?

If you don't, why not?

If you do, what's your best argument for owning them?