So you want your life to improve.

Try working backwards more often.

This is what people far smarter, more accomplished and more worthy of listening to than me have said, and I’ve found it to be useful.

In “Money, Master the Game”, Tony Robbins didn’t say you should make as much as you can and spend less, he said you should figure out what it is that you wish you could spend money on and find out exactly what it would cost. He said not to assume you’d need to be a billionaire. He said get specific, then design the path toward the specific number.

Working backwards from a specific number is a lot easier than a desperate attempt to make as much money as possible.

Similarly, building a business or a family or an organization of any kind is easier when you know what the desired finished product is. So as Ray Dalio explains in his excellent book called “Principles”, make sure you design the finished product before you start production. Where is it you’re trying to go and what are you trying to create? Without knowing where you’re going you can’t work backwards, and working backwards is easier, and it makes you happier.

Just ask Arthur Brooks, the happiness expert. Oprah Winfrey did when she co-authored a book with Arthur called “Build the Life You Want”. What you’ll take away from that one is that the life you want and the life you’re told you should want are more than likely 2 very different things. For example, I might think I want Warehouse Gym Co. to become a 9 figure revenue business. Bigger is better isn’t it? Growth every year forever is the goal isn’t it?

Not necessarily, because think of what it would take me to make that happen. We’d need hundreds of locations and thousands of staff. I’d have to say goodbye to personal training and become a business growth expert. I’d have to travel all over North America all the time, and I’d have to let somebody else mop the gym floor.

I don’t know if I want that, and it’s a good thing I’m aware of that or it might be the product I’m working backwards from. Maybe the life you want isn’t so different from the life you have, but the influences around you have convinced you that you’ve done it wrong so far. Maybe your ideal finished product is closer than you think.

So get to know yourself. Are you the type of person who is interested in being CEO of a 9 figure company? Would it actually suit your personality and values to get promoted at work and have 5 kids? Does it make sense to pay off your mortgage 12 years early and never take your kids on a vacation? Or vice versa?

To quote one of the great “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People”, begin with the end in mind. When you see the end, you can start to piece together the path to get there. Then you can determine if it’s worth it.

Imagine starting a hike not knowing how long it will take or what the elevation is. You need to know what you’re getting into before you decide whether or not to embark. And hey I’m pretty aware of the curveballs that life can throw, so always leave a buffer in your expectations, but going forward is just too exhausting without knowing where the end is.

Get to the end first and chart your path back to where you currently stand. If you’re Canadian and plan to have a Thanksgiving dinner this weekend, picture now how you want to feel the morning after.

If you’re taking Monday off, begin your weekend plan with what you want Tuesday to feel like. The alternative is leaving Tuesday to chance. That might be fine this time, but how many Tuesdays would you let go by chance?

Personally, I lobbied for a Sunday feast rather than Monday so I feel better on Tuesday. And Thanksgiving aside, the finished version of Warehouse Gym Co. has changed a dozen times in the past few years. Working backwards can be confusing when the future keeps changing, so when that happens I build check points into the calendar.

I know where I want to be by the end of 2026, so I can at least work backwards from there. There’s another checkpoint I can put on the calendar in May of 2027, so I can then work backwards from there.

If the future is too big to consider today, imagine tonight when you go to sleep. What’s the most effective path to the end of the day. If today is going to be good, what needs to happen before bed. Try that a few days in a row and the future might get clearer.

If you like this topic, look up David Goggins and Ed Mylett’s powerful versions of working backwards. Click the links.

Something to think about.

See you next Thursday.

— Cody

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