I believe that everything is training for the next thing.
At 30 years old, I am finally stepping into my own.
I had a lot of bad habits to shed. I also had a lot to learn about life. I’m grateful that I “woke up” as early as I did.
Now, I can conceptualize 10, 20, and 30 year plans for my life.
Luckily, I started my professional career soon enough that I can also do the same for business.
And my 30-year plan for business is SWEEEEET!
I have lofty ambitions. All of my goals are tied to creating the world my children deserve.
It’s going to take a lot to do that. So I have to get rich.
My “Long Game”
The best way to do that is by helping people.
Right now, I do so through Greensboro SEO Pro—helping local businesses get customers. Obviously, we do that with SEO. We’re also skilled in other digital mediums. Eventually, we’ll move onto offline marketing methods as well.
Over the next ten years, I build my business marketing machine.
Every business owner knows they need more customers. Unfortunately, most businesses have a variety of other problems. Many of them are intangible and/or ever changing. Very often, I see other glaring issues that I would like to solve.
Over the next twenty years, I build my business consulting machine.
Once in awhile, a business comes to me that I really love. Business models are very interesting to me. I think I’d like to own a lot of them. I like what Marcus Lemonis does—grabbing a piece, tightening the ship, and connecting the dots to his other businesses.
Over the next thirty years, I build my business investing machine.
Now:
Don’t get it twisted.
I’m a well-balanced individual. I build goals around all facets of my life. I’m freaking good at it. And I will talk about the rest of them.
It took awhile to figure them out though.
And I’m still working on executing against them consistently.
So let’s talk about that first.
Reviewing 30 Years of Life
Daaaaaaang homie!
You old!
That’s what the younger me would think. Now, I’d smack ’em in the face and tell him to go sit down. I used to be a little punk.
Weak mentality.
Excuses about how the world sucked and all.
That’s crazy. In my youngest years, I was known as “the kid with the heart.” Tae Kwon Do. Football. Whatever. Every high ropes course ever.
What in the world is fear?
I have no idea.
Then Northwest Middle and High School happened.
😂🤣😅😐😢😭
Funny. Not funny.
I went through the identity crisis many mixed people face at a racist school. I didn’t have it as bad as Goggins and there are certainly worse things in life. But seven years of it sapped my confidence. I really turned out a different senior in high school than you would have predicted after fifth grade. Plus senior year itself was brutal.
But I got through it. And afterwards, I made some friends that helped shift my mindset. The alpha in me started to wake back up.
I started to feel better about my life.
One problem:
I wasn’t going anywhere. Rather, I had no clue where I was going.
I was just sailing along the current of life. I didn’t even know the boat had a rudder.
Around 2012, I started to really wake up (along with the rest of the world 😜). And a few years later, I decided to move to Arizona. That seemed like a good way to break all patterns.
And it sure was.
But I wasn’t actually going to Arizona. I was going to Oregon, via Arizona. And I was going to start a family. That’s another story for another time.
Needless to say, that “trip” changed my life forever.
I had a “why” I never had before. It was by the strongest one I had ever encountered. For me, I think it was probably the strongest one possible. Then, it actually got stronger.
Part of me would say I learned more in the last five years than the other 25 put together.
But another side knows just how important my inner child is.
My favorite book as a kid was The Little Engine That Could.
It made a major difference back then. And it makes a major difference today.
I was raised with an extraordinary amount of love. I was raised to feel the Spirit. And I was raised to believe in myself.
That’s why you’re reading plans on a billion-dollar life, a billion-person legacy.
It took each year, each day of the last thirty to build this me.
It will probably take each minute, each second of the next ninety to get where I want to go.
Luckily, ninety more years is totally doable.
The Next 3 Quarters (Plus Overtime)
Wait…
What?
90?
Yeah, I’m all about longevity. I think I might even live to 180.
If guys like Tom get it their way, I might get to live forever.
The only things that might hold me back:
- Total Social Collapse (See: The Federal Reserve)
- Cinnamon Roll Addiction (See: Diabetes)
- CTE (See: Concussion)
I’ll cross my fingers on the first one and try to beat the next two.
Whatever the case, I’ll be giving 100% until the whistle blows—whenever that is for me.
But here’s the thing:
I want a blowout!
I don’t want it to be close in the end. I want to put the game of life away before half time.
If it’s a blowout, you have the chance to set records and go down in history.
Plus, no one wants to be in a dogfight with life after halftime (a.k.a. age 60).
That sounds wack. I’d rather talk about legacy.
I’ll always be known for playing to the whistle. But I want this game out of reach. I want the ability to keep the ball on the ground and run the clock out at the end of the game. I want to win comfortably and maybe even let the backups in toward the end of the game.
So while we prepare to go for four quarters, we gameplan to put things out of reach in the second.
I do that with a Lifebook style categorical goal setting breakdown.
Here’s a quick four minutes on that if interested:
I decided to use ten domains this year.
- Manifesto
- Character
- Mental Health
- Health & Fitness
- Family
- Social
- Business
- Investing
- Environment
- Adventure
I broke them into four timeframes:
- 3 Year
- 10 Year
- 20 Year
- 30 Year
These long-term goal sets inform my yearly breakdowns, which inform my shorter-term objectives.
And to a large degree, the first categories inform the later ones.
So here’s what I plan to do before halftime.
Quarter 2: Manifesto
I’m all about principles, so that’s where I start.
This section is about self identify and my “words to live by” over the next 3 decades.
I still have a bit to fill in there in the middle. But that fits for now.
Quarter 2: Character
Character follows principles in real life.
It only makes sense that character also follows principles when setting goals.
I’m sure I will add to this and may run out of space.
It’s ok I overlap lists where it makes sense.
Quarter 2: Mental Health
I doubt many people set mental health “goals.”
But I must protect my mental resources to be who I want to be as long as I want to be.
I am pretty sure I’m going to become a CTE expert over the coming decades.
I wouldn’t be surprised if this lead to abandoning everything else for psychology after I get enough.
Quarter 2: Health & Fitness
I want to make it to 120, in good shape.
Ambitious, sure. But planning toward that goal makes me one of the most likely to reach it.
Yup, I want people to see me jump on my car with a killer six pack at 60 and think “that’s a legendary old dude right there.”
Sorry not sorry.
Quarter 2: Family
I have to keep this one under wraps for the time being.
It’s a bit too sensitive to post for now. I might come back and add it later. We shall see.
Quarter 2: Social
Interpersonal relationships are often my biggest struggle.
Much of that has been a product of a lack of awareness. Perhaps I’ve been guilty of undervaluing people as well.
I have some names to add in here. But after completing my family list, I realized I should wait until after the photo.
As is, I almost could have broken this one off and called in “networking.”
Quarter 2: Business
Much of how the second half goes depends on this.
I’m still relatively new in business. But it’s something I excel at. Over time, it’s sure to transform my life.
If you’re patient (and bored) enough to watch me over the next thirty years, you’re going to see an absolute entrepreneurial savage.
What you see here is really only the tip of the iceberg.
I have other Bullet Journal lists to crunch to really complete this one.
Quarter 2: Adventure
It’s really easy for me to overlook this one.
I don’t really ever think about vacation. I usually just go in. But it’s time to change that.
There are mental health benefits to adventure. Plus, I have plenty of other people to think about.
And I can’t lie:
Now that I wrote down “Try Out for American Ninja Warrior,” I’m feeling like it might have to get moved on to this year’s goal list.
😂🏆😍
***I’m procrastinating a bit on Environment, I’ll add it in a day or two.
This Quarter, This Series, This Snap
There are an average about 30 plays in a quarter of professional football.
That’s about one play every thirty seconds.
It’s easy to mess up any given play. Penalties come easily. The opposition is always working against you. Not to mention, running plays is tiring.
But football is all about execution. The team that makes the least mistakes usually wins.
In football, you have to do two things to avoid mistakes.
- Practice. Practice. Practice.
- Stay locked in to the game.
It’s the same in life:
You have to get better everyday. And you can’t take plays off.
In the first quarter of my life, I coasted on a lot of plays. “Just going through the motions” you might call it. I didn’t just take a few plays off, I took whole series off.
And I’ve paid for it. But I could have paid much worse.
Luckily, the opposition has been kind. So I’m still in the game.
Before it all started, I was a heavy favorite. I’ve been blessed with some rare and powerful gifts. I’m not too shy to say that I failed those gifts until about 25.
I still have the talent though. Now I also have the momentum and a strong game plan to go with it.
It’s time for the comeback to begin.
From here on, I take it one play at a time and play every single one to the whistle.
2019 is the first play of my second quarter.
And I’m going to execute.