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“Man is a creature that can get used to anything.”
Fyodor Dostoevsky
My goals used to center on net worth, homes and cars.
Reaching these types of goals gives you a brief high. Then a day, week or month later, your life feels the same as before.
Now I focus on how my days feel: control over my schedule, aerobic capacity and strength.
Buzz Aldrin reached one of the biggest goals a person can: in July 1969, he walked on the moon. Back on earth, the goal was behind him.
In his memoir Magnificent Desolation he wrote: “There was no goal, no sense of calling, no project worth pouring myself into.”
Aldrin spent 21 hours on the moon.
Then he spent the next decade fighting depression and alcoholism.
Run a marathon and then what? Visit each country and then what?
That’s the hedonic treadmill: we get used to the goals we reach and want the next one.
A Vanity Goal leaves your days the same or worse once the high fades. A 10,000-square-foot house is more to take care of. A team of 1,000 people is more to manage each day.
A Sanity Goal makes your ordinary days better after you reach it. If you can’t get to work without a car, owning one makes each workday easier.
Going from a $30,000 car to a $1 million one changes far less: you drive the same roads to the same places.
Now you also worry about potholes and theft.
Financial independence is a Sanity Goal. Mr. Money Mustache, a blogger who retired at 30 by saving most of his pay, wrote that having enough money is reassuring for “a naturally worry-prone person (like I tend to be).”
The peace of mind from financial independence shows up on each day after you reach it.
| Vanity Goal | Sanity Goal |
|---|---|
| A $1,000,000 supercar | A reliable car |
| A private jet | Eliminating your daily commute |
| A 10,000-square-foot mansion | Living close to friends |
| A $1 billion net worth | Reaching financial independence |
| Employing 100 people | Making enough profit to control your time |
| Working 80 hours a week | Doing 4 hours of focused work a day |
| An invitation to exclusive galas | Weekly dinner with people you trust |
| Winning an industry award | Making a product customers love |
Judge a goal by how long it pays you after you reach it.
🌝
Which vanity goal would you swap for a sanity goal?
