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Using Absurd Goals to Kick Yourself Into Action

June 1, 2015 · By Vincent Nguyen · 10 Comments

Using Absurd Goals to Kick Yourself Into Action

My conditioner bottle got me to Southeast Asia. More on that in just a second.

There’s a specific hair conditioner that I’m really fond of.

I’ve only been able to find it in the Philippines and Thailand and when I went back to the states, I couldn’t buy it anywhere.

To my horror, I was running extremely low on my final bottle after having been back home for half a year. I vowed that by the time it ran out, my business would be generating enough income for me to fly back to Southeast Asia and buy another bottle.

Of course, the whole point isn’t to spend nearly a grand to fly to the other side of the world, buy more conditioner and then fly back home (all in the name of having luscious hair). It served as a silly incentive for me to kick myself into gear and keep growing my business to my point where I can resume traveling and living comfortably abroad.

If I had ran out of the conditioner and I still wasn’t overseas yet, I’d know I was lagging behind my revenue goals. I’d know I wasn’t putting in the work that I should to get to where I want to be.

Sometimes it takes a bit of silliness and absurd accountability to make sure you’re on track.

You could use this example for just about anything and honestly, it’s more fun than a traditional “due date” that can be moved around at any time. Let’s be honest, we move those all the time.

Whatever your goals are, tie it to something seemingly absurd but certain.

Ask your boss for a raise before your ketchup bottle runs out? Sure!

Start a business before you use up all of your favorite shampoo? You’d be copying me a bit there, but why not?

Set a goal and make sure it’s accomplished by the time something seemingly trivial but certain happens.

In case you’re wondering, I did manage to get myself back to Asia before the bottle ran out. And yup, one of my first purchases upon arrival was a new bottle.

What’re you going to accomplish before you’re out of conditioner/shampoo?

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Brian says

    June 1, 2015 at 5:03 am

    How about landing page up and blog started before you get here?

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      June 1, 2015 at 6:29 am

      Yo Brian! Gave ya a shout in one of Self Stairway’s recent Facebook posts, not sure if you saw that.

      And YES, I’ll hold you accountable for that. Get a landing page and blog up before June 18th, because Japan’s coming up fast. 🙂

      Reply
      • Brian says

        June 1, 2015 at 7:29 am

        Totally missed that! Looking forward to having you guys though!

        It’ll be ready! Without a doubt!

        Reply
  2. Jamiee says

    June 3, 2015 at 11:25 am

    What about completing this web site I’m developing before I finish my this pack of cigarettes :p

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      June 3, 2015 at 5:36 pm

      Actually, that works!

      Reply
  3. Mathias says

    June 5, 2015 at 11:55 pm

    Well this is certainly an interesting way of setting goals – although I suppose it helps to have such a clear, definitive time-frame for it!

    I’m going to have to try this one out myself!

    Reply
    • Vincent Nguyen says

      June 6, 2015 at 3:15 pm

      Let me know how it goes!

      Reply
  4. Michal says

    June 21, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    I’m so sick of goals, that maybe I’ll try this method.
    Hilarious 😉

    Reply
  5. Roderick Lyons says

    July 6, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    Article so true…Think process of being instead of doing all options we use to get to absurd goals is very important.We tend to only do steps that seem realistic where everything might be a doorway to our dreams if we wait for results.Its worked for me and exprienced results I never imagined.

    Reply
  6. Kerim says

    August 17, 2015 at 11:42 pm

    I hate to keep beating this horse, but it’s not dead yet. You guys need to friuge out a way to allow people to post location buzzes with photos from iPhone and other non-android devices. I would use buzz a lot more than I currently do if I could post a location photo, but alas, I can’t.

    Reply

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