Goals are overrated, this is the one question that matters:

When I was younger, I would spend a lot of time thinking about “what” they want.

“I want to lose weight”, “I want to make more money”, “I want to find my passsion”.

In my 20s, I started focusing on the “why” behind it.

I want to find my passion, because this job I’m doing for 8 hours a day is sucking out my soul. I want to lose weight, because my wedding is coming up, and I want to look good in my pictures.

It doesn’t matter how superficial or trivial the “why” sounds. As long as it’s real to you, it will be more effective.

But now I’ve found a more powerful question. Instead of “what” or “why”, masters of life focus on the “who” question.

Who do I want to become?

This is the most important question I ever asked myself. Who do I want to become?

If I take a look at all the things I have today in my life. I live in San Francisco, in a condo I own, with a fiance & puppy I love, with parents & siblings just 10 minutes away. I have a nice car, and I run a company that’s worth millions of dollars.

What more could I want? If I showed that to the 18 year old me, he would think I’m the coolest person in the world.

But all this “stuff” doesn’t matter. As soon as I accomplish one goal, I make another. Focusing on “what I want to have” is a fools game.

Life isn’t about what you have, it’s about who you become.

Who do I want to become?

- someone who is comfortable with himself, and never feels the need to pretend to feel accepted
- someone who has the mindset & discipline to achieve whatever I set my mind to
- someone who picks worthwhile things to set his mind to
- someone who makes each day count, instead of just going through the motions
- someone who is a master of meaning (placing an empowering meaning on everything that life throws my way)
- someone whos story, actions, & ideas inspire thousands of people everyday to better themselves.

The way I look at it, today is shaan 1.0, this ^^ is shaan 2.0.

Now every day, I look for opportunities to work on one of these things.

I think of it like an iphone app update. Every version of me has bugs. Things that don’t work well. New features. User experience quirks. Glitches. What if I worked on me, created a plan for each new version, the same way I do my app?

write it down. Who is You 1.0, and who will be You 2.0?

if you’re feeling brave, send me yours. (DM or shaan@bebo.com)Sometimes just saying things out loud helps you get there.

-shaan