My New Life Goals (2022)

2022-01-21 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 21:16 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Goals, purpose and life design (also: Health, sleep and habits, Business and entrepreneurship) · mode: Reflection and life update · tags: His own products discussed, His own numbers, Lesson from a book, Sponsor segment present, He changed his mind

Ali reviews his 2021 goals (book draft, wife quest, six-pack abs, busking, storytelling, drawing), draws lessons on goal setting (fewer goals, goals as a side effect of a project, changing your mind, planning over plans) and sets his 2022 goals with his anti-waste man system: a book he is proud of, a fitness habit, dinner parties, acro yoga, singing, and six business goals.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Intro: tea, reviewing last year's goals and setting new ones

00:00:29 — Reviewing the 2021 goals: the book, the wife quest, abs, busking, storytelling, drawing

★★ In January 2021 Ali reckoned that at 2,000 words a day he would have a first draft of his book within six weeks, by mid-February 2021; it is now January 2022, a year later. — 00:00:29
★★★ Ali still has no first draft of his book: writing it has proven much harder than he thought. — 00:00:58
★★★ The publisher's deadline for Ali's book is July 2022; he has set himself March for the first draft, then a few months of tightening it up. — 00:00:58
★★ Setting "make progress towards finding a wife" as one of his active goals for 2021 genuinely made Ali take dating more seriously. — 00:01:57
★★★ Despite lockdown, Ali went on a few dates in 2021 and met someone he feels pretty good about; he will say more in a later video. — 00:01:57
★★ Ali's 2021 goal of six-pack abs did not work out: he got a personal trainer and counted macros, but soon realised he did not much care about the goal. — 00:02:26
★★★ Ali thinks a goal that needs lots of time, effort and sacrifice is hard to keep working towards if you do not fundamentally care about where it ends. — 00:02:26
★★ Ali's 2021 goal of busking on the London Underground did not happen; someone told him the Underground had stopped renewing buskers' licences because of COVID, and it is no longer a big priority for him. — 00:03:25 · COVID-19
★★ For his 2021 goal of becoming a better storyteller, Ali had private coaching with Matthew Dicks, author of Storyworthy, whom he calls one of the world's best storytellers. — 00:03:25
★★ Ali's storytelling coaching with Matthew Dicks turned into coaching on writing his book better, which he preferred, judging his verbal storytelling fine. — 00:03:51
★★ For his 2021 goal of learning to draw like a concept artist, Ali took lessons two or three times a week with his art teacher Alessandro for about three or four months. — 00:03:51
★★ After a few months of art lessons Ali found himself waking up dreading them. — 00:04:20
★★★ Ali's general philosophy for life is not to do things that feel like hard work and effort, but to work with his natural motivations and do what he genuinely enjoys and leads to good outcomes. — 00:04:20

00:04:59 — Lessons on goal setting: fewer goals, goals as a side effect, changing your mind, planning

★★★ Ali's first lesson on goal setting is to set fewer goals rather than more: in 2021 he had too many. — 00:04:59
★★★ Following Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, Ali says we will never have time for everything we want, so we must strategically decide what to fail at; in 2021 he chose to fail at art lessons, busking and six-pack abs. — 00:05:29
★★★ Ali finds a goal much easier to work on when it is a side effect of something else he wants to do: he never set out to learn to code, but to build his website and then a game. — 00:05:58
★★ Ali learned the piano because he wanted to play Disney songs by ear, and the piano came as a side effect of that project; friends who learned classically, with no project they cared about, hated it. — 00:06:27
★★ Getting fitter, stretching and learning to cook have long sat on Ali's bucket list; he has realised he will never learn something just for its own sake in isolation. — 00:06:56
★★ Ali says it is completely okay to change your mind about your goals: trying things gives new data points, so there is little point clinging to a vision decided a year ago. — 00:07:25
★★ Ali fully agrees with the line "plans are pointless but planning is indispensable", attributed to Einstein though probably a myth: his business's plans are soon outdated because things change so quickly, but the act of planning is useful. — 00:07:51

00:08:34 — Goal one, writing a book he is proud of, through the anti-waste man system

★★★ Ali used to set SMART-style goals but is no longer a big fan of them: achievable and realistic, and timely and specific, overlap; he keeps the format only because everyone talks about it. — 00:08:50
★★★ Most goals should be 100% within our control, Ali says: his goal is a book he is proud of, not a New York Times bestseller or critics' approval, which rely on someone else as gatekeeper. — 00:09:36
★★★ Ali's book has deals in America, the UK and several other countries for translation; publishers have already paid in advance, so he must deliver it. — 00:10:06 · United States, United Kingdom
★★ After a first draft by 31 March 2022, Ali aims to send the final manuscript of his book to the publishers by 31 July 2022. (hedged) — 00:10:35
★★ Every day from Tuesday to Sunday Ali blocks out 9 a.m. to 12 noon for writing his book, Mondays being team-meeting days, and his calendar has been cleared of business meetings. — 00:10:35
★ Ali rates at seven out of ten how surprised he would be to fail at writing a book he is proud of by his deadlines. — 00:11:04
★★★ For any goal, Ali finds it really useful to ask how surprised you would be to fail and the top three reasons you might fail; he thinks more people should, and asks friends these questions. — 00:11:33
★★ Following Who Not How by Ben Hardy and Dan Sullivan, Ali asks who can help with his book: a book coach, editors, his agent, his team and his audience. — 00:12:21
★★ To stack the deck against procrastination on his book, Ali makes it easy to start each morning: the computer already out and knowing the night before what he will write. — 00:12:50

00:13:49 — Personal goals: a fitness habit, dinner parties, acro yoga, singing and a team band

★★ If writing the book is the only goal he accomplishes in 2022, Ali thinks the year will have been time well spent. — 00:13:49
★★ Ali's second goal for 2022 is a sustainable fitness habit rather than six-pack abs: working out three or four times a week and enjoying it; he has subscribed to Apple Fitness+ and done his first workout. — 00:13:49
★★ Ali's accountability coach, who messages him about his workouts, adds an extra layer of accountability for exercise he genuinely wants to do but might otherwise struggle with. — 00:14:18
★ As a fitness project Ali names becoming a Gymshark athlete, long on his bucket list, and toys with getting hench enough for the cover of Men's Health. (playful) — 00:14:18 · Gymshark
★★ As with learning to code, Ali thinks a fitness project would make a sustainable fitness habit easier to keep up than lifting weights for its own sake. — 00:14:47
★★ Ali has changed his third goal for 2022 from learning to cook to hosting an intimate dinner party every one or two weeks. — 00:14:47
★★ At his dinner parties in his London flat Ali will mix friendship groups and cook instead of ordering takeaway, hoping the project will be a forcing function to learn to cook. — 00:15:16 · London
★ Ali's first trial dinner party, with friends from university, is the evening after this video (22 January 2022). (hedged) — 00:15:16
★ To learn cooking Ali watches the YouTube channels Babish, Ethan, Alex French Guy Cooking and Pro Home Cooks. — 00:15:45
★★ Ali has bad posture, anterior pelvic tilt and little flexibility; after years of stretching on his resolutions list, his 2022 project for it is learning acro yoga. — 00:15:45
★★ Ali does hamstring stretches while brushing his teeth, switching leg at each 30-second buzz of his electric toothbrush, and his flexibility has noticeably improved in two or three weeks. — 00:16:31
★★ Ali's fifth goal for 2022 is to get better at singing, because he wants to make music videos on YouTube. — 00:17:00
★★ Ali's project for singing is a band with musical members of his team, filming Boyce Avenue-style videos in the studio. — 00:17:33
★★ Ali's business works with a business coach and follows the Entrepreneurial Operating System of the book Traction, with six main goals for 2022. — 00:17:33

00:17:53 — Six business goals for 2022

★★★ The first business goal for 2022 is three successful cohorts of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, hopefully with 1,500 students and revenue of about £3 million or $3 million. (hedged) — 00:18:02 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
★★ The second business goal for 2022 is to launch several evergreen courses, hopefully making £100,000 a month from courses other than the Part-Time YouTuber Academy by the end of the year. (hedged) — 00:18:02 · Part-Time YouTuber Academy
★★ Ali wants a classy, non-salesy sales and marketing funnel for his courses: he dislikes how many internet gurus do it and wants nothing shoved down people's throats. — 00:18:32
★★ Ali's team now numbers 17 people, but the early members, Ali, Angus, Chris and Elizabeth, hold much of the know-how in their heads. — 00:18:32 · Angus, Christian, Elizabeth
★★ Because unwritten know-how makes it hard for new people to get up to speed, Ali's business aims to document all its key processes so anyone can follow the checklist. — 00:19:01
★★ Ali's business is launching a new YouTube channel project, which it hopes will reach at least 100,000 subscribers. (hedged) — 00:19:01

00:19:33 — Notion sponsor read, template link and sign-off

★★ Ali personally dislikes revenue, subscriber and follower goals, which are not within the business's control; the business breaks them down into goals that are. — 00:19:33

In the description and comments

★ Ali writes his book in Apple Notes and Google Docs. — creator comment
★★ Answering a viewer who thinks forcing a book to a deadline defeats its purpose, Ali says basically every author he has heard on this says you need deadlines to sustain motivation. — creator comment
★ Asked whether he has age-based goals, such as a degree or a first home by a certain age, Ali says he does not. — creator comment

Threads in this video

setback · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali still has no first draft of his book: writing it has proven much harder than he thought. (00:00:58)
milestone · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali's book has deals in America, the UK and several other countries for translation; publishers have already paid in advance, so he must deliver it. (00:10:06)
promised · Ali promises the first draft of his book by March 2022 (2022) — The publisher's deadline for Ali's book is July 2022; he has set himself March for the first draft, then a few months of tightening it up. (00:00:58)
refine · How do you find a partner? — Setting "make progress towards finding a wife" as one of his active goals for 2021 genuinely made Ali take dating more seriously. (00:01:57)
milestone · Ali starts his wife quest, making progress towards finding a wife (2021) — Despite lockdown, Ali went on a few dates in 2021 and met someone he feels pretty good about; he will say more in a later video. (00:01:57)
promised · Ali promises more in a later video about someone he met while dating (2022) — Despite lockdown, Ali went on a few dates in 2021 and met someone he feels pretty good about; he will say more in a later video. (00:01:57)
dropped · Ali commits to busk in 2021, on the London Underground or at least on the streets of Cambridge (2019) — Ali's 2021 goal of busking on the London Underground did not happen; someone told him the Underground had stopped renewing buskers' licences because of COVID, and it is no longer a big priority for him. (00:03:25)
looked back · Ali learns to draw concept art (2021) — For his 2021 goal of learning to draw like a concept artist, Ali took lessons two or three times a week with his art teacher Alessandro for about three or four months. (00:03:51)
restate · Should productivity be about efficiency or about enjoying the work? — Ali's general philosophy for life is not to do things that feel like hard work and effort, but to work with his natural motivations and do what he genuinely enjoys and leads to good outcomes. (00:04:20)
refine · How do you decide which work to prioritise? — Following Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, Ali says we will never have time for everything we want, so we must strategically decide what to fail at; in 2021 he chose to fail at art lessons, busking and six-pack abs. (00:05:29)
refine · How do you learn a new skill quickly? — Ali finds a goal much easier to work on when it is a side effect of something else he wants to do: he never set out to learn to code, but to build his website and then a game. (00:05:58)
mentioned · Ali starts learning to code at 11, wanting to make a text-based game like Kings of Chaos — Ali finds a goal much easier to work on when it is a side effect of something else he wants to do: he never set out to learn to code, but to build his website and then a game. (00:05:58)
mentioned · Ali teaches himself the piano from YouTube tutorials in his third year of medical school — Ali learned the piano because he wanted to play Disney songs by ear, and the piano came as a side effect of that project; friends who learned classically, with no project they cared about, hated it. (00:06:27)
refine · How should you review your year and plan the next? — Ali fully agrees with the line "plans are pointless but planning is indispensable", attributed to Einstein though probably a myth: his business's plans are soon outdated because things change so quickly, but the act of planning is useful. (00:07:51)
shift · Should you set goals, and how? — Ali used to set SMART-style goals but is no longer a big fan of them: achievable and realistic, and timely and specific, overlap; he keeps the format only because everyone talks about it. (00:08:50)
restate · Should you set goals, and how? — Most goals should be 100% within our control, Ali says: his goal is a book he is proud of, not a New York Times bestseller or critics' approval, which rely on someone else as gatekeeper. (00:09:36)
refine · Should you set goals, and how? — For any goal, Ali finds it really useful to ask how surprised you would be to fail and the top three reasons you might fail; he thinks more people should, and asks friends these questions. (00:11:33)
restate · Should you time-block your calendar? — Every day from Tuesday to Sunday Ali blocks out 9 a.m. to 12 noon for writing his book, Mondays being team-meeting days, and his calendar has been cleared of business meetings. (00:10:35)
refine · How do you beat procrastination? — To stack the deck against procrastination on his book, Ali makes it easy to start each morning: the computer already out and knowing the night before what he will write. (00:12:50)
restate · How do you exercise consistently and get in shape? — Ali's accountability coach, who messages him about his workouts, adds an extra layer of accountability for exercise he genuinely wants to do but might otherwise struggle with. (00:14:18)
refine · How do you exercise consistently and get in shape? — As with learning to code, Ali thinks a fitness project would make a sustainable fitness habit easier to keep up than lifting weights for its own sake. (00:14:47)
callback · Ali jokes that he is on a quest to become a Gymshark athlete (2019) — As a fitness project Ali names becoming a Gymshark athlete, long on his bucket list, and toys with getting hench enough for the cover of Men's Health. (00:14:18)
refine · How do you build a good habit and break a bad one? — Ali does hamstring stretches while brushing his teeth, switching leg at each 30-second buzz of his electric toothbrush, and his flexibility has noticeably improved in two or three weeks. (00:16:31)
milestone · On a Zoom call Ali and Angus plan the final details of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, a four-week live interactive course Ali runs for the first time from next week (week of 16 November 2020). — The first business goal for 2022 is three successful cohorts of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, hopefully with 1,500 students and revenue of about £3 million or $3 million. (00:18:02)
refine · How do you sell without feeling sleazy? — Ali wants a classy, non-salesy sales and marketing funnel for his courses: he dislikes how many internet gurus do it and wants nothing shoved down people's throats. (00:18:32)
milestone · Ali builds a team for his online business — Ali's team now numbers 17 people, but the early members, Ali, Angus, Chris and Elizabeth, hold much of the know-how in their heads. (00:18:32)
refine · How do you delegate work to the people on your team? — Because unwritten know-how makes it hard for new people to get up to speed, Ali's business aims to document all its key processes so anyone can follow the checklist. (00:19:01)
refine · Do you need motivation or discipline to get things done? — Answering a viewer who thinks forcing a book to a deadline defeats its purpose, Ali says basically every author he has heard on this says you need deadlines to sustain motivation. (creator comment)
progress update · Ali expects his first book to come out in about two years (2021) — After a first draft by 31 March 2022, Ali aims to send the final manuscript of his book to the publishers by 31 July 2022. (00:10:35)
promised · Ali says he is doing a fitness journey at some point soon (2022) — Ali's second goal for 2022 is a sustainable fitness habit rather than six-pack abs: working out three or four times a week and enjoying it; he has subscribed to Apple Fitness+ and done his first workout. (00:13:49)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — completed; last: milestone, 2023-12-26
Ali says he is doing a fitness journey at some point soon (2022) — open (updates through 2023, not reported done); last: progress update, 2023-09-22
Ali commits to busk in 2021, on the London Underground or at least on the streets of Cambridge (2019) — dropped; last: progress update, 2023-06-28
Ali promises the first draft of his book by March 2022 (2022) — kept late
Ali promises more in a later video about someone he met while dating (2022) — open (no report in 2022–2023); last: promised, 2022-01-21
Ali expects his first book to come out in about two years (2021) — the project it belongs to reported its result; last: progress update, 2023-12-08
On a Zoom call Ali and Angus plan the final details of the Part-Time YouTuber Academy, a four-week live interactive course Ali runs for the first time from next week (week of 16 November 2020). — running; last: looked back, 2023-12-08
Ali starts his wife quest, making progress towards finding a wife (2021) — running; last: milestone, 2023-12-08

Mentioned

Central: anti-waste man system · Part-Time YouTuber Academy

Also: People: Albert Einstein · Alessandro · Angus · Ben Hardy · Christian · Dan Sullivan · Elizabeth · Mary Spender · Matthew Dicks · Oliver Burkeman · Sam Kolder

Works: Four Thousand Weeks · Men's Health · Storyworthy · Traction · Who Not How

Organizations: Alex French Guy Cooking · Binging with Babish · Boyce Avenue · Gymshark · Pro Home Cooks · The New York Times

Concepts: accountability buddy · acro yoga · COVID-19 · Entrepreneurial Operating System · SMART goals · stacking the deck

Places: Cambridge · London · London Underground · United Kingdom · United States

Products: Apple Fitness+ · Notion

Only in the description or credits: Apple Notes · Google Docs

Also centred on anti-waste man system: The Most PRODUCTIVE Thing I Do Each Year · My PRODUCTIVE Bucket List (2021)

Replies to

refers to · 21 Life Lessons I've Learned

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