[CAJobPortal Insights] Anti-Goals

Yes, if you are extremely fortunate, you will have an ideal job.

But even if you do — and particularly if you do not — there may be parts of the job that you hate.

Be it relentless bosses, conspiring co-workers, hectic travel or late nights, almost everyone’s workday has elements they can do without.

You can be a more effective person at work if you identify the aspects you least like about it, and deliberately avoid them.

By creating a list of “anti-goals” you can develop strategies for eliminating them from your life

Anti-Goals — a concept that caught fire in an article shared by Tiny founder Andrew Wilkinson — use the power of inversion to illuminate that problems can also be solved when they are reversed.

Let’s learn from Warren Buffett’s business partner, Charlie Munger:

- A lot of success in life and business comes from knowing what you want to avoid: Early death, a bad marriage, etc.

- It is remarkable how much long-term advantage we have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent

- Problems frequently get easier if you turn them around in reverse.

It is often easier to ask “what do we want to avoid” than to consider “what do we want”.

With the current Covid19 situation, one Anti-Goals will come quickly to the top of your mind e.g. “I don’t want to be employed”, “I don’t want to default on my EMIs”

Antigoals could centre on Values, Habit, Physical, Emotional and Relationships.

Personally one’s Anti-Goal Persona could be as follows:

I have seen my father fall prey to the cigarette addiction and lose his health completely. I don’t want to be like him. Hence, no matter how alluring it may appear, I will never touch cigarette.

I am now in Kolkata where corporate jobs are few and far between; thus if I am to ensure that I am not forced to relocate to a different city for career — I will have to turn entrepreneurial.

I don’t want to get transferred every 3 years in a bank, so I have chosen not taking a promotion, even if it means comprising on pay and designation.

Anti-Goals are important, and once you’ve selected them they can be a great motivator.

You could say that you don’t want to dealing with people you don’t like or trust — and thus make a rule that you would not do any business or take any obligation from people you don’t like — even just a slight bad vibe and it’s a hard no

Even if you can’t avoid all of the unpleasantness at work, devising strategies to deliberately avoid what you can makes sense

So this year work out what you want to avoid. It may seem counterintuitive to think about what you don’t want to be, but your Anti-Goal persona will help make sure you never lose your identity as you grow and even motivate you into becoming who you want.