Going “Through” Goals
Alicia Burke, one of our Mind Map Gurus, recently put the concept of “Going Through Goals” on my radar:
"Going to vs going through a goal. JFK - our aim is not solely to place a man on the moon, but to achieve this monumental task and ensure his safe return back to Earth. The goal is not to make it into the NBA, it’s to have a successful career, be a good team player and leader.”
This resonated with me because I’ve never really taken the straight and narrow path towards major life goals. In fact, what seemed to be the objective at the time, in retrospect, was only a stepping stone towards something bigger.
This idea inspired me to map out where I’ve come from and where I’m going:
Crafting meaningful narratives
As you can see, it’s an interconnected web of various influences at different times across five areas of Content, Community, Courses, Consulting and Podcast.
My creator journey began on YouTube in March 2020, dubbed “Content 1.0”. In 2021, I launched the Silver & Steel (S&S) newsletter and website to house the growing body of work.
In 2022, I got the inspiration for Mind Map Nation during a life-changing 10-day Vipassana retreat and began working on the community, the flagship 7-day Mind Map Mastery course and this Epiphany newsletter that you’re reading now. After MMN was launched I made the difficult decision of sunsetting S&S.
In the first half of 2023, I made two more MMN courses, which got me confident enough as a coach to launch my first high ticket program Hustle Launchpad. Around the same time, I got into the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator began starring in other creators’ shows, leading to my own foray into podcasting with the Gurus workshop series.
Similarly when it came to consulting, I began with a single client call that led to 5-session packages, then to 10-session packages. Eventually my efforts amounted to glowing reviews, monthly retainers, and speaking engagements.
Did I know that I was heading towards higher goals at the time?
Not at all. I was only aware of my immediate next step.
But it all makes sense when I map everything out.
As human beings, we need meaning and purpose in our lives beyond the simple day to day grind. A powerful way of injecting meaning is to craft a narrative for ourselves.
As with most of my mind maps, I look for patterns in where connection arrows begin and end. You’ll notice there’s a big cluster around MMN 1.0, which turned me into writer, community leader, group course teacher - all of which fed back into my content.
Objectively speaking, S&S was a failure compared to MMN, yet MMN would not have been possible without going through S&S first.
Likewise, Hustle Launchpad’s success is already teeing me up to launch the Inner Citadel, a resilience program to deal with life’s challenges - to win even as you feel like you’re losing.
Shooting beyond the moon
Here’s how I’d rephrase Alicia’s JFK comment in the beginning of this essay:
Our aim is not solely to place a man on the moon, but to send humans to inhabit Mars.
Yes, how Elon Musk of me to say so. But it illustrates how I think about the “going through goals” idea, which is to be intentional about where we are going in the future with our limited time on this Earth.
I put stars next to the goals that I’m currently pursuing and went one step further by expanding the next goal that this step leads to.
For example, in this sprint, I’m structuring my content into learning programs for MMN 2.0, which will allow me to rally our most active members around their areas of interest in MMN 3.0, creating a true community in the process.
The same tech stack that the Gurus series is built on will power the Epiphany podcast in the future. The distribution system I built for Content 2.0 will maximize my reach as I take my videos in a new cinematic direction in Content 3.0.
One step leads to the next. But perhaps the most important element in all this ambitious planning is how I want to feel as I’m pushing past the moon. I might hit all my milestones, but if I'm miserable as I’m achieving them, then it doesn't mean much.
That’s why pairing this map with the Values Map is critical to navigating both the trajectory and uncertainties along the path.
What goals are you going through and towards this year?
Make the most of your mind maps
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