A Digg Approach to Goal Setting: Discover, Digg or Bury, and Repeat

“If you find stories with bad links, off-topic content, or duplicate entries, click “Bury.” That’s how we get the spam out of the system and let the good stuff rise to the top.”
-Digg

Most of us don’t lack resources, we lack insightful & creative goals that unlock our inner ninjas and wreak havoc on our world in beautiful ways. More on this later, let’s get started with some groundwork. . .

The Scoop on Digg

There’s a lot of whack stuff thrown up on Digg. Much of it is crazy and most of it is bad. But, every once in a while, a needle-in-the-haystack submission makes audacious promises and then delivers (like this). These pages usually hit the Digg Front Page lickity split.

Here’s How Digg Works (still relevant to experienced Diggers):*

• Step1-Page Discovery. Someone discovers a page and submits. There’s no criteria for submission (well, I guess there are technically some), and virtually everything’s fair game. Crackpot ideas, poorly-produced videos, scams, hacks, blank pages, etc.  You name it, it get’s submitted.
• Step 2-Digg or Bury. After submission, Diggers “Digg” (promote) or “Bury” (kill) the submission.  Repeatedly "Dugg" submissions become increasingly visible while "Buried" submissions drift into the ether.
• Step 3-Continual Review. Even Top 10 submissions can be voted up or down. Nothing is exempt. Everything submitted is subject to scrutiny (unless it gets buried and falls into obscurity).  This continual review ensures the quality and relevance of highly visible content.

What Does this Have to With Goal Setting?

A lot, in fact. As I said earlier, most of us lack insightful and creative goals that unlock inner ninjas that lay waste to our existing lives in beautiful ways. These goals can galvanize us, bring us to life, activate us like nothing else.

We often don’t find these brilliant needle-in-a-haystack ideas/goals because they don’t make it past the filters of our subconscious (it’s a mean bouncer that stops good goals from entering the consciousness party). A treasure trove of ideas are nixed before we even know we’ve thought of them. The result is heaps of great ideas rendered dead on arrival.

"Don’t worry about what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive."
-Howard Thurman 

Clay’s response: The holy grail of goal setting is to create goals that make us come alive.

All too often we learn to be "realistic" and forget how to dream because we’ve stopped considering "crazy" possibilities.  Here’s one solution…

The Digg Your Goals (DYG) Goal-Setting System

Yup, it’s the Digg system applied to your personal goals (you saw this coming), but stay tuned for some important twists. A modified version of this system has helped me start a business, quit a job, and create an almost completely mobile lifestyle within months (I have few obligations to actually be somewhere).

Here’s how it works:

• Suggested time: 15 minutes, 2-6 times per week. Lots of flexibility here, but I highly recommend doing this at least 2 times/week. (I also recommend timing yourself with a sand timer).
• Items needed: A spreadsheet file with three sections: (1) A “Top 15” section, (2) a “Popular” section, and (3) an “Upcoming” section . These are roughly analogous to Digg’s Front Page, Popular Page, and Upcoming Page. I’ve provided an example spreadsheet. 

(Note: Regarding the “Top 15” page, the number 15 is just a guideline. If the number of top goals needs to fluctuate between 5 and 25 on a regular basis, then so be it).

Step 1-Goal Discovery (5 minutes)

• The goal here is to suspend reality and write down whatever you want in your DYG Upcoming section (this is where all the fresh content goes).
• We’re aiming for unrealistic authenticity when generating/discovering goals. At this step, seat-of-the-pants thinking and stream-of-consciousness writing is a good thing.
• Don’t limit yourself by so-called “reality,” just generate ideas.
• While you should intend to be truly you, please avoid censoring yourself: if you want to write down “own a Lamborghini,” then write it down. You’ll be cutting the fat in successive days, and good goals will stand the test of time.
• There are different levels of goals. For example a high level goal might be “get out of debt”; a mid-level goal might be “earn an extra $20,000 this year”; and a low-level goal might be “obtain a business license.” Don’t discriminate between goal types, write them ALL down.

Step 2-Examine, then Modify or Bury, Previous Goals (5 minutes)

• Scan goals from previous days.
• If you feel lukewarm about a goal, consider giving it another chance. Ask yourself “how can this goal be improved.” Try enhancing the goal, making it more authentic and relevant. Options include adding/eliminating a detail, moving a comma, using more colorful language, rewording, etc.
• If you feel good about a goal, you should still consider enhancing it. Regularly altering our goals in subtle or not-so-subtle ways doesn’t make us flaky — quite the opposite (see here for a previous post on the topic). When we modify goals we re-claim ownership of them, we stay connected to them. Good goals, like good rules, are meant to be broken.
• If you feel entirely unconnected to a goal, then eliminate it. Inauthentic goals and goals that can’t weather the test of time are tanked, terminator style. Hasta la vista, baby.
• If, after modification, you still feel apathetic about a “Top 15” goal, move it back to the P
  opular section.
• If you’re unsure of one of the Popular goals, move it to the Upcoming section.
• If unexcited about a goal in the Upcoming section, move it to the bottom of the section or eliminate it altogether (you can always bring it back).

You get the idea.

Step 3-Digg Your Goals, Adjust the Order (5 minutes)

• Promote the most resonant goals (that survived Step 2) by moving them up.
• One factor to consider when promoting a goal is time: if an inspiring goal has been lingering around for a long time, that warrants respect.
• A second factor to consider is velocity. On Digg, a submission can skyrocket to the Top 15 page within hours if enough people Digg it in a short timeframe.  So it should be with your goals: if you stumble upon a goal and can’t get it out of your head, then perhaps it deserves Top 15 real estate.
• There’s no strict methodology or algorithm for promotion, just follow that inner ninja.

Final Notes

The Digg Your Goals (DYG) System is trademarked, patented, protected by international trade agreements between 857 countries, and subject to the U.N. DYG Treaty Covenant (12 L.N.T.S. 684, entered into force March 9, 1927). Just kidding. Consider this a work-in-progress and feel free to tune me into any tweaks and modifications you make. A frequent problem with achievement “systems” is that they are rigid. What I’ve described are loose guidelines: please break them all. Worse comes to worst, ditch the whole thing and just spend daily time purposefully avoiding reality, writing down your thoughts, and keeping in touch with the ones that resonate. Who knows, some of those crazy ideas might eventually find grounding in reality.

Gratitude!

• To Laurie: For showing me that a Digg metaphor was good.
• To Skellie: For this post, and the whole “audacious promise delivered on” idea.
• To Diggers and Digg: For creating a great system for filtering junk to find hidden gems.
• To Mother Fools: That Chipotle stew could have written this post by itself.
• To: ManyFires: For the sweet picture.

If you enjoyed this article, please Digg it or share on del.icio.us. I’d be grateful.

~Clay

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