For most of my life, I was wandering mindlessly.

Sometimes setting goals, sometimes not.

Sometimes planning my day, sometimes not.

I had no real direction for my life (which probably explains why I went to university twice for two different courses)

But this problem isn’t new or unique to me.

Most people go through life with no goals, vision for their life or mission.

Which means 1 thing.

Any guesses…?

You have no reason to push yourself.

Nothing you do in the micro is tied to the macro.

So any attempt at pushing yourself hard enough for long enough to see progress and results meets a dead end.

It feels meaningless.

You quit.

Give up.

And cycle in and out of your attempts at making something of yourself.

Let’s run through an example.

Imagine you were trying to grow your brand and build an audience, but for no big reason - it’s just a goal you have.

Every day you would wake up, generate interesting ideas, create content, engage on the timeline, work on your offer, engage some more, network and try your fucking hardest to grow.

How long could you keep this up?

On top of working out, self-educating, going to work, looking after your family, doing chores around the house, getting 8 hours sleep - oh and all whilst getting no results with your brand.

A follower here or there, on a good day maybe 3 or 4.

A bad day, maybe you’ll lose some.

Could you do it for a week?

Could you do it for a month?

Could you do it for 3 months?

Could you do it for 2 fucking years?

I’ll tell you something you won’t want to hear, but it’s the truth.

And I know it’s the truth because I’ve been on Twitter for over 3 years.

I’ve seen 1000’s and I mean 1000’s of accounts come and go.

You would quit somewhere between the 1-3 month mark - if you’re lucky. Most people would quit in the first month.

But it’s all because you have no bigger vision or mission.

The work that’s required to grow an audience and build something great (in any field, not just online) is 10x more than you think.

It’s tough. It’s tiring. It’s frustrating. But it’s worth it.

All you have to do is keep showing up, every single day, iterating on what works for 2+ years.

But without a reason to do that, without this bigger vision or mission, that’s near impossible for 99% of people (honestly, it’s likely more than 99% of people from my experience).

Setting a bigger vision was one of the best things I’ve ever done for my life.

Everything becomes brighter.

The micro tasks repeated daily become meaningful now that they’re connected to the macro, they become fulfilling.

You have a reason to keep going and you’re willing to push yourself for as hard and as long as success requires.

It’s longer than you think.

It’s harder than you think.

And yes, we used the example of building an audience, but everything we just talked about applies to EVERYTHING.

It’s going to be harder and take longer than you think.

So if you want to make it, you need to link the micro of the day-to-day to the macro of your life.

To do that, go through these 3 processes:

Life Tapping

I talk about this all the time.

BUT IT’S THAT IMPACTFUL.

What you want to do is get out a notebook and a pen (use your favourite pen for this - come on, I know you’ve got one)

And then write, in detail, about your dream life.

What does your dream life look like?

What do you do for work? How do you feel each morning? What do you spend your time doing? What’s your entire daily schedule? How much money do you make? What’s your partner like? What habits do you have? What does your house look like? Where do you live?

Be as meticulously detailed about as possible about as many areas as possible.

The whole idea here is to get emotional and connected to this vision of how you want your life to be.

This way, you can link your goals and daily tasks to pushing you toward this dream life.

I go through this process and give you a notion hub to help you complete it in my Get Shit Done System (as a subscriber, you can get 50% off here)

Mission Discovery

Your life mission is the most powerful driving force you can discover.

It’s not something that can be found overnight. It’s not something that should be rushed.

But it’s something you should and need to be conscious of finding.

This process has a number of steps.

1. Follow your genuine curiosities

What are you interested in? Whatever it is, find it. Follow it. Learn about it on Youtube, through books, courses or mentors.

Do whatever you can to follow this curiosity.

And don’t confuse curiosity with passion here. You don’t NEED to be passionate, just curious or interested, with no judgement.

If you have an interest, follow it. If it dies off, it dies off. Move onto another.

If there’s something you’re passionate about, even better, follow it. But it’s not a necessity.

2. Build out a project related to that curiosity

Knowledge is great, but action is king.

Start building a project related to what you’re interested in.

The project can be anything from a business to an art project to LITERALLY ANYTHING.

However, I do recommend building an audience and brand around your curiosities - the world is moving online, people are buying from people they trust (personal brands that provide value), you can talk about whatever interests you whilst helping people and you can make a shit tonne of money from anywhere in the world working as little as 2-4 hours per day.

3. Do more of what you enjoy, less of what you don’t 

As you follow your curiosity and build out your project, you’ll notice certain things light you on fire and certain things dull your flame.

Don’t panic. Pivot.

Do less of what you don’t enjoy and more of what you do.

4. Journal

Take out a notebook and your favourite pen and ask yourself what impact you want to have on the world.

Who do you want to help? How do you want to help them? Why do you want to help them?

Figure this out. Don’t rush it. Don’t half ass it.

Answer this question and repeat the above steps.

Eventually your mission will be revealed.

It might take 1 week.

It might take 1 year or maybe 10 years.

But it will work.

This is another reason I’m a massive advocate of building an audience and brand, it’s often the perfect vehicle to help you make the impact you want to make.

Goal Setting

Next you want to set your goals.

Make sure your goal is;

• Reasonably unreasonable

• Specific

• With a deadline

If your goal doesn’t match these, you’ll struggle to achieve it.

And then, this is where the magic happens, make sure your goal is aligned with your mission and dream life.

If you don’t know your mission yet, no worries, just do this for your dream life.

Make sure your goal, if achieved, will push you toward your mission and your dream life.

If it doesn’t, you need a new goal.

If it does, great. Break your goal down into daily actions.

These daily actions, when you get bored of doing them, when you want to quit, or give up or skip a day

You remind yourself that these are what will push you toward your dream life and mission.

And you my friend, have just consciously aligned your life.

- Ross “we all have a favourite pen, you just haven’t found yours yet” Harkness

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you

• Achieve Self-Mastery, unlock your true potential and smash every goal you set with MasteryOS

• Learn how to build a multi 6-figure audience and business with Personal BrandBldr

• As a subscriber, you can get 50% off my Get Shit Done Productivity System by clicking here