Don't push forward from the present. Walk backward from the goal.

We all know the usual way of setting goals.

"I want a GPA of 3.8 this semester." Then a list — so many hours every day, so many chapters, so much revision.

And three weeks later, nobody knows where the list has disappeared to.

Why?

Because you decided "what to do". You did not decide "who to become".

The to-do list runs out. But you remain the same person as before — and the earlier person did not reach this goal, did they?

Reverse Goal Setting changes exactly this.

The core idea: start from the opposite direction

Instead of pushing forward from your present situation, start from the goal.

Imagine that ideal person — the one who will surely achieve this goal. What are his or her habits like? How does he or she study? What does he or she do after waking up in the morning? What does he or she do when under pressure?

Then gradually turn yourself into that person.

Achieving the goal then stops being a battle. It becomes a natural outcome.

Five steps

Step 1 — Set a goal at least six to nine months away

Why so far away? Because a near goal creates a to-do list, while a distant goal changes a person. And changing a person takes time.

Step 2 — Rate the ideal person's qualities out of 10

List the qualities of that ideal person — focus, consistency, note-taking skill, punctuality, handling pressure, and whatever else is relevant.

Beside each one, give a rating out of 10 — how important is this for achieving this goal? And write a short comment beside it, saying why.

Step 3 — Rate yourself on the same components

Now rate yourself on the same list. Honestly.

The difference between the two columns is your real path. Start from where the gap is biggest.

Step 4 — Force field analysis

There are two kinds of forces around you —

Obstacles: What is holding you back? Resources: What do you have in your hands? — material resources, time, money, and people (this is the most neglected).

Write the two lists side by side. Often you will find that you are not using even half of what you have.

Step 5 — A SMART plan only for the next step

This is the most important step, and this is where the most mistakes happen.

Don't make a detailed plan for the whole six months. It will collapse at the first obstacle.

Make a specific, measurable, time-bound plan only for the next step. When that is finished, move on to the next one.

Respect realistic timelines

Here are some honest calculations —

• Do not work on more than two or three components at a time.
• If you stay consistent, you gain roughly one point per month.
• But progress slows down at the higher end — going from 4 to 5 is easy, going from 8 to 9 is much harder. Going from 10 to 10 takes years.

If you know this, discouragement does not come.

Give extra time at the beginning

Get to know your goal and yourself well — because these two shape the whole rest of the plan.

One more practical piece of advice: observe what people do rather than what they say. For someone who is successful, their habits teach more than their advice.

Don't just keep a "wish"

If you don't know how to improve, then let your first task be learning that.

Because — it is not the passing of time, but what you do during that time that brings real change. Six months will pass anyway; the question is where you will be after six months.

And if needed, reconsider your goal

If time is short, do not chase short-term results and end up losing on both sides. Instead, take a long-term plan of building foundational skills.

And keep your intention right. If your intention in seeking knowledge is only marks, then once you get the marks, the effort stops. If your intention is to gain beneficial knowledge and the pleasure of Allah — then the path becomes a lifelong one.

Tomorrow is day 22 — the three pillars of extraordinary productivity.

Today, draw two columns on a piece of paper — "the ideal person" and "me". The difference is your roadmap.

May Allah purify our intentions. Ameen.

This piece is taken from a part of the book "The Art of Learning". The full structure, the remaining chapters, and the section on knowledge, dua and ruqyah are in the book — See the book