Often we are at a loss to describe what we want. It is easier to articulate what we don't want. It is ironic. What is even stranger is that we are asked to describe what we want more often. There are simple questions like the movie, the restaurant, books, etc. Which movie would you like to see? Which restaurant would you like to go? What books do you like to read? Then there are complex questions about life and career. Where do you want to be in five years? What changes would you like to make to your life? What are you planning to achieve this year? When the scale moves towards the right concerning complexity, it becomes harder to answer. Often the questions related to work and career that gives us trouble.
When there is a lack of clarity on what is desirable and clarity on undesirables, why don't we use the clarity to chalk out the plan? Define your plan around the undesirables. What I described is called the inversion. Using this principle, we describe the plan based on what we don't want instead of what we want. It is a trick suggested by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet's business partner. Tell me where I'm going to die, so I will never go there. You may laugh and quote the books or the scriptures about what happened to people who avoided death. But I am not a very religious man and hence get the gist of Munger, although I have to admit I did smile while reading the trick.
Using Munger's method, Andrew Wilkinson, founder of Metalab and Flow, writes about the power of anti-goals. For all of us, it is a good way of setting goals. Use inversion. Use what we don't want to happen to design our future. Enjoy reading and planning.
Picture Courtesy: maaco
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