Anti-Goals

The other day, I came across the idea of anti-goals, and it stuck with me. The idea of anti-goals refers to the practice of determining what you do not want and strive to avoid it. It is a stark contrast of setting goals, which focus on what you want to achieve.

This idea of anti-goals gained popularity when entrepreneur, Andrew Wilkinson, wrote an article showing how setting anti-goals improved his life and that of his partner (Chris Sparling). The idea came to them as an inspiration from the successful investor, Charlie Munger, who famously said: ‘tell me where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there’.

Although this idea can be applied to any area of life, Andrew and Chris implemented in their work. What they wanted to was to have fun and enjoy their work. They then decided to be clear about what the worst day looks like so they could avoid it. Below is an excerpt of what their anti-goals look like:

Our worst possible day looked like this:

1. Full of long meetings
2. A packed calendar
3. Dealing with people we don’t like or trust
4. Owing people things / not being in control / obligations
5. Having to be at the office
6. Travel
7. Tired

Setting anti-goals can be an important strategy to improve clarity about what you want by being clear about what you don’t want. This is crucial as statistics show that very few people actually achieve or follow through their new year’s resolutions. It could be that they don’t know what they should avoid. In this can anti-goals can help.