Ever since I heard Tim Ferriss mention that he likes to set one serious goal and one fun goal to help him balance out the seriousness, I’ve wanted to do the same. The truth is that I typically have like 10 goals at once, with quite a few of them being on the silly side, but I wanted to get serious about it.
To help me reduce overwhelm, I’m trying to cut down on my goal list and pick a few main goals to focus on. Right now, my main serious goal is to become a world-class health writer, and then for fun, I’ve decided to train to become a world-class dancer too.
I love hip hop, I love belly dancing, I love burlesque, and I love the idea of becoming as good as I possibly can in these dance styles. A dream come true would be to learn how to pole dance (or do pole gymnastics as I like to call it), but I need to gain a little upper body strength first.
Why Should You Choose a Serious Goal and a Fun Goal at the Same Time?
Setting a fun goal to go with your serious goal can help you reduce the stress associated with your serious goal. And if you’re a workaholic, and you tend to lose yourself in work projects, having a fun goal that demands part of your day can help you be more balanced and not focus on just one thing.
Plus, life is short and you don’t want to be too serious, do you? Ever since I decided that I want to go hard on my dance goal, I haven’t been feeling as stressed and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.
How to Pick a Serious Goal
Pick a serious goal that will help you get closer to your biggest dreams. I like goals that focus on skills development. I mentioned that I want to become a world-class writer. I want to become as good as I possibly can and learn as much as I can over the next few years.
And then one day, when you least expect it, I’ll wow you with my own magazine, the one I’ve dreamt of creating ever since I discovered magazines as a 10-year old desperately looking for health information.
A serious goal doesn’t have to be related to work. Maybe your serious goal is to lose weight because your body fat percentage is a little on the high side and you want to be as healthy as possible and live as long as possible to be there for your kids.
It could be to get your finances in order or improve your relationship with your spouse. If it is a little serious and you’re serious about wanting to achieve it, it counts.
How to Pick a Fun Goal to Go With Your Serious Goal
So, how do you choose a fun goal? You do get bonus points if your fun goal promotes your health and wellbeing, but it’s not a requirement. I chose dancing because it’s what I loved to do most as a kid.
I was listening to a podcast with Steven Kotler in which he said that most people have some kind of activity they used to love doing as a kid that would get them into the flow state and made them lose their sense of time. For me, it was dancing, and I haven’t been dancing as much as I want to ever since I “grew up”.
For you, it might have been playing tennis, baking, or playing video games. Your fun goal could be to become really good at playing your favourite game.
What makes you excited? What do you see other people doing that makes you feel a little jealous because you want to do it too?
At some point, respected author, investor, life optimiser, podcast host, and overall supergenius Tim Ferriss had a goal of creating his own perfume as his silly goal.
I highly recommend this whole setting a fun goal to go with a serious goal thing.
