Stormblood
Well-known member
[I have seen some posts by people asking about this over the years, me included. Since I studied this in-depth, I decided to create this guide that may be helpful to anyone who struggles with this.]
This is a top-down approach and, in my opinion, it works the best.
Goal-setting - Part 1
The first thing one needs to do is to create an action plan. In this plan, you write down all your life goals. Think carefully about this.
Once you've written them down, read them multiple times out loud. Do they make sense to you? Are those things you really want? Is there anything else you should add? These are a few of many questions you should ask yourself when checking the list you made. Delete any goal that doesn't really resonate with you.
One of the popular ways is setting SMART goals.
:arrow: S is for Specific: Your goal should be well defined. Don't say you want to be rich; say you want to make a certain amount of money.
:arrow: M is for Measurable: If you can't measure your goal, you can't manage it. Getting fit isn't measurable - running a six-minute mile is.
:arrow: A is for Actionable: You wouldn't drive to a new town without asking for directions. Develop the action steps to achieve your goal.
:arrow: R is for Realistic: If you're living in you're parents' basement, it's hard to become a millionaire. Your goals should challenge and stretch you, but not so much that you give up on them.
:arrow: T is for Time-Based: the phrase, "A goal is a dream with a deadline" comes to mind. Setting a time to complete your goal makes you that much more likely to reach it.
Jim Qwik says that, to get your goals out of your head and into your hands, you need to make sure they fit with your emotions - with your HEART:
:arrow: H is for Healthy: How can you make sure your goals support your greater well-being? Your goals should contribute to your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
:arrow: E is for Enduring: Your goals should inspire and sustain you during the difficult times when you want to quit.
:arrow: A is for Alluring: Your shouldn't always have to push yourself to work on your goals. They should be so exciting, enticing, and engaging that you're pulled toward them.
:arrow: R is for Relevant: Don't set a goal without knowing why you're setting it. Ideally, your goals should relate to a challenge you're having, your life purpose, or your core values.
:arrow: T is for Truth: Don't set a goal just because your neighbour is doing it or your parents expect it of you. Make sure your goal is something you want, something that remains true to you. If your goal isn't true to you, you're far more likely to procrastinate and sabotage yourself.
Goal-setting - Part 2
[Disclaimer: Do not start this section until you've read my article about motivation]
Once you're certain about the list you made, start dividing the goals into categories. An example of categories you can use is the twelve houses in astrology. So, you can group each goal under one house. Ideally, you should have one goal for each of them, as the purpose of Spiritual Satanism is to achieve mastery over your life as a whole. You may not have goals for certain areas of your life if you have already mastered that area. Mastering an area means you've reached the pinnacle in it and there's nothing else you could ever want in it, as far as you know. It's otherwise alright to leave blank areas if you are not aware of where you want to head with it. You will find out as you live your life. So, don't worry about it, don't overthink it and don't guilt-trip yourself. Let things unfold naturally.
At this point you should choose up to 3 areas of your life that you want to prioritise over the next 5 years of your life, or even just over the next year of your life. Again, it doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be done. This areas should have more goals. For the sake of not overdoing it, let's say up to 3 goals in this example. Overdoing it is a tendency of fire dominant people, and needs to be brought under control because it leads to failure without exception [and a nervous breakdown].
After you have categorised your goals, it is time to start planning how you will achieve them. This is done by breaking down your goals into smaller steps. Long-, medium- and short-term. Let's consider one year of planning. A long-term goal would encompass from 6 months up to the whole year. If you are doing a 5-year plan, long-term goals can also span all 5 years and it would be useful to break them in yearly goals. Medium-term goals can go from 2 weeks up to 6 months. Short-term goals are goals you can achieve in less time, such a weekly goal or a daily task.
It goes without saying that long-term goals are set first, then broken down into medium-term goals. Medium-term goals are finally broken down into short-term goals.
Examples of long-term goals if you are a student at university:
:arrow: Study - I will achieve a Starred 1st class degree [or whatever the top-tier degree in your country]
:arrow: Fitness - I will run 5km in under 18 minutes
:arrow: Spirituality - I will be able to light 5 candles at once
Examples of medium-term goals based on the previous goals:
:arrow: Study - I will achieve 90% of higher in my Physics midterm assignment.
:arrow: Fitness - I will complete my first 5km run the week before Yule.
:arrow: Spirituality - I will be able to light 1 candle 8 weeks from now.
Example of short-term goals based on the above:
:arrow: Study - I will read chapter 1 of my physics text book at 5pm today.
:arrow: Fitness - I will start the Couch to 5K programme at 7am tomorrow with the first session.
:arrow: Spirituality - I will try to turn off a candle for 5-10 minutes at 7pm today.
Daily schedule
Daily tasks are short-term goals you put in your weekly schedule. Your weekly schedule should be made to create a supporting lifestyle that empowers you to achieve your goals. You can prepare this every Sunday or whatever is your most free day during the week. Ideally, they should run Sunday to Saturday, or Monday to Sunday, depending what the first day of the week is in your culture.
Start by considering how many hours you have in a week. A week is made by 168 hours. Cut out sleep hours. On average, you should aim to sleep no less than 5 hours and no more than 9 hours, unless you are ill. Through trial and testing, some of us already know the best sleep schedule for them, and fewer still have the ability to implement it in their lives.
For the purpose of this example, let's consider 8 hours of sleep every night, which is 56 hours in a week. If you subtract them from 168, you get 112 hours. Those are the hours you need to plan. If you take out work and other fixed commitments, such as lectures, seminars and tutorials/supervisions for students, you get left with your spare time. Fit your goals in those hours.
I won't provide any direct example for this, as there are two many variations. I will go more indirectly. A star student I know, has 10 hours a week between seminars and lectures. To this, he adds 30 hours between study, revision and assignment prep. This way he is always ahead of the syllabus (and also studying extra things). This leaves him with 56 hours to plan.
In this 72 hours, 8-10 are blocked for sports (he participates in 2 sports), 3 are blocked for running, and 7 for fitness. 19 hours for spiritual activities (including warfare). The remaining 33-35 are usually for commuting, meals and some more passive leisure. Some weeks he works 8-16 hours, taking them from passive leisure, which doesn't affect him as the rest of his schedule already allows his to relax and have fun. Plus, he loves what he studies, so he's never stressed.
When planning daily tasks for the week, you may need to guess how long it takes for you complete those task. When guessing, it is better to go in excess rather than being too strict with time. And you can adjust as you go.
Daily tasks are the smallest, simplest steps you can take toward your goals. As we know from Jim Qwik in his book Limitless, small simple steps are part of the motivation mechanism.
Accountability
One way to keep yourself accountable is to perform periodic performance reviews. This will increase self-awareness. A daily performance review is the same thing HP Hooded Cobra explained in the first awareness meditation he shared. You do it at night before going to bed. Just follow his instructions and you will be alright.
Take a moderately longer time at the end of the week to do a longer review. You should revisit the whole in a similar way to how you do daily reviews. This should ideally be done before crafting next week's schedule, so you can tweak it to your needs. The process is the same for every next review.
Each month you should a longer monthly review. This will help you when set the next medium-term goals.
Students would benefit from doing an extra review at the end of each school term. Workers can do quarterly reviews instead.
Finally, obviously, you should do an in-depth review at the end of each year, and at the end of a 5-year plan if you made one.
Reviewing your performance not only keeps you accountable but also increases awareness of what you're doing with yourself, with your life. I will not spend any words on this, as I don't think I can live up to HP Hooded Cobra's sermon on awareness. The only thing I need to remind you of is that the attitude that you should keep is the non-judgemental one that is explained in the meditation.
Tools
Here is a list of tools that can keep you organised and focused:
:arrow: Trello- You can find a good guide on how to use this on Liam Porrit's channel on YouTube. He is stellar student who graduated from the University of Cambridge with Starred First degree, did his GDL, and now has a training contract in a Magic Circle firm (these are the top corporate firms in Britain, which are very difficult to get hired from). He is great at organising his life.
:arrow: Focus Keeper- this is a mobile app that uses the pomodoro technique to help you.
Final Words
This is it for this guide. I hope it will be useful to as many people as possible. I will come to review it from time to time, as new knowledge arises. I now challenge you to start making your own action plan and test everything for yourself.
Feel free to add your tools, and also contribute to the guide with your experience. Also, if any section is unclear or would be worth expanding, do not be afraid to point it out.
Onwards and upwards!
This is a top-down approach and, in my opinion, it works the best.
Goal-setting - Part 1
The first thing one needs to do is to create an action plan. In this plan, you write down all your life goals. Think carefully about this.
Once you've written them down, read them multiple times out loud. Do they make sense to you? Are those things you really want? Is there anything else you should add? These are a few of many questions you should ask yourself when checking the list you made. Delete any goal that doesn't really resonate with you.
One of the popular ways is setting SMART goals.
:arrow: S is for Specific: Your goal should be well defined. Don't say you want to be rich; say you want to make a certain amount of money.
:arrow: M is for Measurable: If you can't measure your goal, you can't manage it. Getting fit isn't measurable - running a six-minute mile is.
:arrow: A is for Actionable: You wouldn't drive to a new town without asking for directions. Develop the action steps to achieve your goal.
:arrow: R is for Realistic: If you're living in you're parents' basement, it's hard to become a millionaire. Your goals should challenge and stretch you, but not so much that you give up on them.
:arrow: T is for Time-Based: the phrase, "A goal is a dream with a deadline" comes to mind. Setting a time to complete your goal makes you that much more likely to reach it.
Jim Qwik says that, to get your goals out of your head and into your hands, you need to make sure they fit with your emotions - with your HEART:
:arrow: H is for Healthy: How can you make sure your goals support your greater well-being? Your goals should contribute to your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.
:arrow: E is for Enduring: Your goals should inspire and sustain you during the difficult times when you want to quit.
:arrow: A is for Alluring: Your shouldn't always have to push yourself to work on your goals. They should be so exciting, enticing, and engaging that you're pulled toward them.
:arrow: R is for Relevant: Don't set a goal without knowing why you're setting it. Ideally, your goals should relate to a challenge you're having, your life purpose, or your core values.
:arrow: T is for Truth: Don't set a goal just because your neighbour is doing it or your parents expect it of you. Make sure your goal is something you want, something that remains true to you. If your goal isn't true to you, you're far more likely to procrastinate and sabotage yourself.
Goal-setting - Part 2
[Disclaimer: Do not start this section until you've read my article about motivation]
Once you're certain about the list you made, start dividing the goals into categories. An example of categories you can use is the twelve houses in astrology. So, you can group each goal under one house. Ideally, you should have one goal for each of them, as the purpose of Spiritual Satanism is to achieve mastery over your life as a whole. You may not have goals for certain areas of your life if you have already mastered that area. Mastering an area means you've reached the pinnacle in it and there's nothing else you could ever want in it, as far as you know. It's otherwise alright to leave blank areas if you are not aware of where you want to head with it. You will find out as you live your life. So, don't worry about it, don't overthink it and don't guilt-trip yourself. Let things unfold naturally.
At this point you should choose up to 3 areas of your life that you want to prioritise over the next 5 years of your life, or even just over the next year of your life. Again, it doesn't need to be perfect. It just needs to be done. This areas should have more goals. For the sake of not overdoing it, let's say up to 3 goals in this example. Overdoing it is a tendency of fire dominant people, and needs to be brought under control because it leads to failure without exception [and a nervous breakdown].
After you have categorised your goals, it is time to start planning how you will achieve them. This is done by breaking down your goals into smaller steps. Long-, medium- and short-term. Let's consider one year of planning. A long-term goal would encompass from 6 months up to the whole year. If you are doing a 5-year plan, long-term goals can also span all 5 years and it would be useful to break them in yearly goals. Medium-term goals can go from 2 weeks up to 6 months. Short-term goals are goals you can achieve in less time, such a weekly goal or a daily task.
It goes without saying that long-term goals are set first, then broken down into medium-term goals. Medium-term goals are finally broken down into short-term goals.
Examples of long-term goals if you are a student at university:
:arrow: Study - I will achieve a Starred 1st class degree [or whatever the top-tier degree in your country]
:arrow: Fitness - I will run 5km in under 18 minutes
:arrow: Spirituality - I will be able to light 5 candles at once
Examples of medium-term goals based on the previous goals:
:arrow: Study - I will achieve 90% of higher in my Physics midterm assignment.
:arrow: Fitness - I will complete my first 5km run the week before Yule.
:arrow: Spirituality - I will be able to light 1 candle 8 weeks from now.
Example of short-term goals based on the above:
:arrow: Study - I will read chapter 1 of my physics text book at 5pm today.
:arrow: Fitness - I will start the Couch to 5K programme at 7am tomorrow with the first session.
:arrow: Spirituality - I will try to turn off a candle for 5-10 minutes at 7pm today.
Daily schedule
Daily tasks are short-term goals you put in your weekly schedule. Your weekly schedule should be made to create a supporting lifestyle that empowers you to achieve your goals. You can prepare this every Sunday or whatever is your most free day during the week. Ideally, they should run Sunday to Saturday, or Monday to Sunday, depending what the first day of the week is in your culture.
Start by considering how many hours you have in a week. A week is made by 168 hours. Cut out sleep hours. On average, you should aim to sleep no less than 5 hours and no more than 9 hours, unless you are ill. Through trial and testing, some of us already know the best sleep schedule for them, and fewer still have the ability to implement it in their lives.
For the purpose of this example, let's consider 8 hours of sleep every night, which is 56 hours in a week. If you subtract them from 168, you get 112 hours. Those are the hours you need to plan. If you take out work and other fixed commitments, such as lectures, seminars and tutorials/supervisions for students, you get left with your spare time. Fit your goals in those hours.
I won't provide any direct example for this, as there are two many variations. I will go more indirectly. A star student I know, has 10 hours a week between seminars and lectures. To this, he adds 30 hours between study, revision and assignment prep. This way he is always ahead of the syllabus (and also studying extra things). This leaves him with 56 hours to plan.
In this 72 hours, 8-10 are blocked for sports (he participates in 2 sports), 3 are blocked for running, and 7 for fitness. 19 hours for spiritual activities (including warfare). The remaining 33-35 are usually for commuting, meals and some more passive leisure. Some weeks he works 8-16 hours, taking them from passive leisure, which doesn't affect him as the rest of his schedule already allows his to relax and have fun. Plus, he loves what he studies, so he's never stressed.
When planning daily tasks for the week, you may need to guess how long it takes for you complete those task. When guessing, it is better to go in excess rather than being too strict with time. And you can adjust as you go.
Daily tasks are the smallest, simplest steps you can take toward your goals. As we know from Jim Qwik in his book Limitless, small simple steps are part of the motivation mechanism.
Accountability
One way to keep yourself accountable is to perform periodic performance reviews. This will increase self-awareness. A daily performance review is the same thing HP Hooded Cobra explained in the first awareness meditation he shared. You do it at night before going to bed. Just follow his instructions and you will be alright.
Take a moderately longer time at the end of the week to do a longer review. You should revisit the whole in a similar way to how you do daily reviews. This should ideally be done before crafting next week's schedule, so you can tweak it to your needs. The process is the same for every next review.
Each month you should a longer monthly review. This will help you when set the next medium-term goals.
Students would benefit from doing an extra review at the end of each school term. Workers can do quarterly reviews instead.
Finally, obviously, you should do an in-depth review at the end of each year, and at the end of a 5-year plan if you made one.
Reviewing your performance not only keeps you accountable but also increases awareness of what you're doing with yourself, with your life. I will not spend any words on this, as I don't think I can live up to HP Hooded Cobra's sermon on awareness. The only thing I need to remind you of is that the attitude that you should keep is the non-judgemental one that is explained in the meditation.
Tools
Here is a list of tools that can keep you organised and focused:
:arrow: Trello- You can find a good guide on how to use this on Liam Porrit's channel on YouTube. He is stellar student who graduated from the University of Cambridge with Starred First degree, did his GDL, and now has a training contract in a Magic Circle firm (these are the top corporate firms in Britain, which are very difficult to get hired from). He is great at organising his life.
:arrow: Focus Keeper- this is a mobile app that uses the pomodoro technique to help you.
Final Words
This is it for this guide. I hope it will be useful to as many people as possible. I will come to review it from time to time, as new knowledge arises. I now challenge you to start making your own action plan and test everything for yourself.
Feel free to add your tools, and also contribute to the guide with your experience. Also, if any section is unclear or would be worth expanding, do not be afraid to point it out.
Onwards and upwards!
![BlackOnyx8 [JG]](/data/avatars/m/71/71344.jpg?1725067962){kind=avatar}
![Blitzkreig [JG]](/data/avatars/m/21/21286.jpg?1704756304){kind=avatar}
(I'm sorry I didn't see this when you originally posted it.)
![BlackOnyx8 [JG]](/data/avatars/s/71/71344.jpg?1725067962){kind=avatar}
