First Principles & Backwards Timelines: Musk Method

Most people think goal setting is about writing down what you want. It's not. It's about creating gravitational pull so strong that your entire life reorganizes around what you're building. After 15 years of setting and hitting impossible goals — from building multiple businesses to launching a top podcast to selling a million books — I've cracked the code on why most people fail and the few who win do it differently.

In this episode, I break down my exact five-step process for setting goals you'll actually follow through on in 2026. You'll learn the regret minimization framework from Jeff Bezos, why Elon Musk uses first principles and backwards timelines, how Warren Buffett's 5/25 rule forces ruthless focus, and why Sam Walton obsessed over daily numeric targets instead of quarterly objectives. I reveal why exploitation keeps you efficient but exploration creates breakthroughs, how to use goal gravity to pull everything towards your target, and why your year needs a name before it can have a plan.

But this isn't theory — it's my actual goal journal from the last 15 years. I show you my relationship goals, work targets, travel plans, and even the silly stuff like feeling more feminine and cutting out bread (spoiler: didn't nail that one). You'll see my "more of/less of" list, why I track daily streaks, and how I turned 2024 into my "full send" year and 2025 into my "year of flow." If you're tired of setting the same goals every January and abandoning them by February, or if you want to finally build a life most people only dream about, this episode will change how you think about goal setting forever. It takes 21 days to create a habit, but 90 days to create a totally different lifestyle. Start your timer. This is day one.

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00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:12 Goal Gravity: Why Small Goals Kill Your Future 00:02:13 Exploitation vs Exploration: The Fork in the Road 00:03:44 The Regret Minimization Framework from Bezos 00:04:40 Name Your Year: The Power of Framing 00:06:26 First Principles and Backwards Timelines: The Elon Musk Method 00:09:21 The Four Goal Categories: Relationship, Work, Travel, and Fun 00:11:37 The Say No List and Warren Buffett's 5/25 Rule 00:13:17 More Of, Less Of: The Anti-Goal Method 00:14:59 Daily Scoreboard: Sam Walton's Obsessively Measurable Goals 00:16:54 The Five Patterns of World-Class Goal Setters

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