Input-Based Goals
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- —
Ali's decision rule for setting goals is to choose targets that sit inside his own control. Writing the best book he can, or a book he is proud of, is an input goal; hitting a bestseller list or having a particular impact on readers is an outcome goal. The mechanism is energetic rather than moral: thinking hard about outcomes he cannot control depletes the energy he needs to actually make the thing. He is candid that this involves a kind of doublethink — he knows what impact he would like, and deliberately does not dwell on it. He applies the same rule elsewhere. Asked for his dream podcast guest, he says the whole framing is outcome-focused, and that he tries to focus as much as he possibly can on what is within his control.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Write down the goal as you first phrased it
Capture the goal in its natural form, which is usually an outcome — a bestseller list, a subscriber count, a revenue number, a dream guest.
- 2
Test whether it is inside your control
Ask whether achieving it depends on other people's decisions. Ali is explicit that the impact of his book is outside his control, and that hitting the New York Times bestseller list is too.
Watch out An outcome goal can look actionable while every actual lever belongs to someone else.
- 3
Restate it as an input you can execute
Convert the goal into the work itself. Ali's version: I want to write the best book I can, or a book I am proud of.
Pro tip Test the restatement by asking whether you could achieve it even if the market ignored you entirely.
- 4
Hold the desired outcome loosely
Keep a clear sense of the impact you would like without making it the operating target. Ali describes knowing the kind of impact he wants but deliberately not thinking about it too hard.
- 5
Use energy as the diagnostic
If dwelling on a goal drains you rather than motivating you, that is the signal you have drifted back to an outcome target. Ali's stated reason for avoiding outcome focus is that it depletes the energy needed to create the thing.
In the wild
Asked what impact he wants the book to have, Ali says he does not like to think in terms of numbers. He describes one reader who currently feels drained by their job changing their relationship with work — but then immediately catches himself, noting that the impact of the book is outside his control. His operating goal instead becomes writing the best book he can, one he is proud of, rather than a book that hits a certain list or reaches a certain number of people.
→ He keeps his creative energy directed at the manuscript rather than at sales projections he cannot influence.
Angus asks who Ali's dream podcast guest is. Ali resists the premise, saying the whole dream-guest framing is very outcome-focused and he does not really like thinking about outcomes. He offers a few names — Derren Brown, Alain de Botton, possibly Tim Ferriss — but notes that they say don't meet your heroes, and that never talking to Tim Ferriss would be no major loss for either of them. What he returns to is focusing as much as he possibly can on what is within his control.
→ Booking decisions stay driven by the conversations he wants to have rather than by a wishlist he cannot influence.
Common mistakes
Setting a bestseller-list goal
Ali names this directly as the type of goal that sits outside his control. Chasing it converts creative work into a marketing gamble and, on his account, drains the energy needed to produce the thing being marketed.
Pretending you have no desired outcome
Ali does not deny wanting impact; he calls the arrangement a sort of doublethink. Suppressing the ambition entirely is not the rule — declining to make it the operating target is.
From the transcript
“i always find it way more energizing to have a goal that's fundamentally within my control like i want to write the best book i…”
“i know that will deplete my energy when it comes to actually creating the thing”
“it's it's all very outcome outcome focused and i don't really like thinking about outcomes”
From the episode
Life Update: Building My Business And Writing My New Book
Life Update