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Life

26th Apr 2024

What are anti-goals and can they help improve your career?

Kat O'Connor

Anti-goals may be the best thing for your career

Is anyone else forever setting goals, whether they’re career-based or personal?

I love trying to better myself, professionally and personally, and there’s something unexpected that might help you.

If you’re the type of person who is always working overtime and pushing yourself then anti-goals could be worth considering.

But what are they?

It says it all in the name, anti-goals are simply things you don’t want to happen.

They’re the things you want to avoid and prevent happening in the future.

Being aware of them helps keep you on track and will help you stop them from happening.

Anti-goals help us take note of things we don’t want to happen like being in debt or unemployed, and help us do whatever we can to avoid it happening.

You can introduce anti-goals into your personal and professional life, but they can have a noticeably incredible impact on your career.

The idea was inspired by businessman Charlie Munger after he said, “Tell me where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there”.

By figuring out what you don’t want in life, anti-goals will eventually help you see what you do want.

The best way to start your anti-goal list is to picture the worst day imaginable and work from there.

It may be as minor as walking up late, missing the bus, getting fired from your job, or getting dumped. Focus on the worst things that can happen and they are your anti-goals. Being aware of them will then help you set goals to avoid them from happening.

You can check out the original anti-goals list below for some inspiration:

Credit: Andrew Wilkinson

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