Impossible List: Set Goals You Will Accomplish
Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know to start setting goals in your own Impossible List.
What is an Impossible List?
An impossible list is a place to keep everything that you want to achieve or do. It is split up into different aspects of your life (from studying to travelling) and enables you to keep track of your longer-term goals.
I first created my own Impossible List in 2012 and have been using it ever since to set and achieve my goals. I discovered it thanks to the wonderful Thomas Frank, and adapted it to form the killer system you’ll discover in this post 😀
An Impossible List is kind of like a Bucket List. However, there is one really crucial difference between the two…
“With a Bucket List, you’re setting yourself a list of things it would be cool to do in the future. With an Impossible List, you’re focusing on taking action to actually do the things on your list. The impossible becomes possible.”
It constantly changes as you change. So, when you achieve one goal, you set a new, even more ambitious one!
An Impossible List is supposed to be made up of longer-term goals. By that, I mean that the following should not go in your Impossible List.
Doing well in your end-of-topic test next week
That does not mean that “doing well in your end-of-topic test” is not an important goal. It really is! However, that sort of short-term goal is probably part of a much longer-term goal, such as:
Getting an A in History in your end-of-year exams
… and that is exactly the sort of thing that should go on your Impossible List.
Now we know that your Impossible List is for your longer-term goals, we surely still need somewhere to put shorter-term goals?
Yes, absolutely!
“The Impossible List is the first part of a system that I use to set, break down and then achieve goals!”
So, here is a step-by-step walkthrough the whole system (it contains the answer to where your shorter-term goals go!)…
Step 1: Impossible List
Create an Impossible List for longer-term goals across different aspects of your life.
Step 2: Focus Goals
Each month, decide on your ‘Focus Goals’. As you will see at the top of my Impossible List below, I have selected a number of longer-term goals from my Impossible List that I am working towards this month.
Step 3: Action Plan
Each month, create an Action Plan. This Action Plan breaks down your Focus Goals for the month into a series of short-term steps. So, if your one of your Focus Goals for this month were “get an A in History in my end of year exams”, one of your shorter-term goals in your Action Plan would be “revise for and do well in my end-of-topic test next week”.
Where do your shorter-term goals go?
… So, the answer to this question is that shorter-term goals go in your monthly Action Plan.
To learn exactly how you can start using my system (Impossible List, Focus Goals & Action Plan), check out my post Set And Achieve Goals: My Tried-and-Tested System.
There are a few key principles:
You have a few focus goals each month that you specifically work on achieving / getting closer to achieving.
You cross things off when you complete them, adding a date and explanation of how you accomplished the goal.
Where applicable, when you complete a goal, you readjust and set a new, more ambitious target.
You try to enjoy the process of getting to the goal at least as much as achieving the goal itself. Remember: the route to the top is often more fulfilling than the view when you get there!
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Get Your Impossible List Template
This is a free word document template to get you started with making your own Impossible List!
Studies
Get 12 straight A*s at GCSE (exams taken when 16 in UK)- 16th August 2012 - I achieved A*s in English Language, English Literature, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Spanish & Italian!
Get 4 straight A*s at A-level (exams taken when 18 in UK)- 23rd August 2014 - Wooo!! Got straight A*s in my A-levels: French, Spanish, Maths & Further Maths (+ an AS in Latin!)
Get into Trinity College, University of Cambridge- 8th January 2014 - I was offered a place to study Medieval and Modern Languages (French & Spanish) at Trinity College, Cambridge
This is a photo of me and my best friend Nat, taken a couple of weeks after the start of our first year at Trinity.
Become a Senior Scholar at Trinity College, University of Cambridge- 10th June 2016 - I came third in my year of 170 languages students and was therefore made a senior scholar at Trinity!!Obtain 75% or higher in my Year Abroad Project on French regional accent- 20th June 2018 - I scored 82% on this dissertationImprove my French and Spanish translation skills- 20th June 2018 - I was awarded a First Class mark in my French translation paperGraduate with a First Class degree from Trinity College, University of Cambridge- 20th June 2018 - I was awarded a Starred First Class degree in Modern and Medieval Languages (French and Spanish) from Trinity College, Cambridge
Nat and I graduated together from Trinity College, Cambridge on 27th June 2018
Complete the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) with a Distinction- 10th September 2019 - I came second of 755 students with an average of 75%, obtaining a distinction- Complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC) obtaining a Distinction
Business
Write and publish my first book- 14th March 2014 - My first book, Exam Grade Booster: GCSE French, was published and went on sale on Amazon UK.Publish 5 books (in colour) under the publishing house Exam Grade Booster- 7th March 2016 - Exam Grade Booster: IGCSE Chemistry was published, making it the fifth colour guide in the series.
Here, you can see the Exam Grade Booster books available on Amazon UK!
Have one of my books sold in a real, physical bookstore.- 24th November 2014 - The colour versions of Exam Grade Booster: GCSE French, Exam Grade Booster: GCSE Spanish and Exam Grade Booster: GCSE German went on sale in Heffers Bookstore, Cambridge.Update and re-release the GCSE French guide as interactive an course on our own web-app.- 12thth January 2019 - StudyMojo went live with the first GCSE French course available for schools to purchase, being used in over 20 schools in the first year!- Complete the Foundation Tier courses for GCSE French
- Complete the GCSE Spanish courses
- Make the courses available for members of the public to purchase, in addition to schools
- Have 1,000 active StudyMojo users
- Release a new book on the essentials of studying, covering active recall, spaced repetition and other techniques, and create a stunning eBook version and make this free on my website and Amazon as a lead generation tool
- Offer my law notes and guides, mostly free but with a few paid products on my website
- Find more regular and relevant advertisers to monetise my Instagram account, following an increase in engagement levels
- Create a SkillShare course
- Create merch!
YouTube Channel
Click here to check out my channel!
Publish 10 videos- 25th April 2018 - I published my tenth video, Study Routine of a Cambridge studentPublish 25 videos- 28th November 2019 - I published my twenty-fifth video, Be Productive Before School- Publish 50 videos
Get to 500 YouTube subscribers- 3rd May 2017Get to 1,000 YouTube subscribers- 5th February 2018Get to 5,000 YouTube subscribers- 12th April 2019- Get to 10,000 YouTube subscribers
Reach 100,000 views- 6th Janurary 2019- Reach 250,000 views
- Monetise channel
General Life (a bit serious)
Find a wonderful, amazing, supportive, all-round awesome, superstar girlfriend- 1st December 2012 - I asked out my amazing girlfriend, Beth, and she said “yes”, thank goodness! We’ve happily been together (despite being along way away from each other a lot) ever since!
Paris, France, November 2016
Buy a car- 16th July 2014 - I bought a grey VW Fox for £4,750 using the money I had made from Exam Grade Booster: GCSE French and a lot of help from my dad!- Start a charity that helps educate young people all over the world
Decide exactly what job I would like to do (by trying things out!)- 20th August 2017 - I was offered training contracts following vacation schemes at Slaughter & May and Clifford Chance and I accepted the offer from Clifford Chance.Get onto the IGNITE tech training contract- 12th February 2019 - I was offered the Clifford Chance IGNITE training contract and accepted- Buy a house
- Get married
General Life (not so serious)
Drive a supercar (I’m not particularly fussy which)- 16th August 2017 - I went on a race day and drove an Ariel Atom, Lambourghini and Ferrari!- Watch Coldplay live
- Meet Barrack Obama
- Be on TV – not sure why, just would be pretty cool :p
- Skydive
- Climb a mountain
- Cycle from Land’s End to John o’Groats (Southern tip to Northern tip of UK)
Travel
Go to South America- 18th June 2016 - I spent over 2 months in Peru, first travelling, particularly around Cusco (near Machu Picchu), and then staying with a Peruvian family and teaching English in Lima.
This is me teaching a class of Peruvian students from La Inmaculada school in Lima!
- Have visited every country in Europe
- Go to Australasia
Go to Asia- 18th November 2018 - Nat and I taught English in a Buddhist monastery for 2 weeks before travelling around India.- Go to South-East Asia
Go to North America- 18th November 2018 - I went to Texas to visit my good pal Jay, who I met while living in Madrid for 4 months in 2017.Go to New York City- 10th October 2019 - I went to NYC to visit a university friend who has moved out there!- Go to San Fransisco
Go on safari- 12th April 2006 - I went on safari with my family in South Africa.- Go on safari again – it really is that awesome!
Eat real pizza in Italy- 14th June 2017 - I went to Naples, Capri, Sorrento and Positano with my friends Nat, Alexia and Andreas and ate loads of pizza!- Snorkel in the ocean with turtles
Watch a live sports event in the USA- 20th November 2018 - Jay took me to watch the Houston Rockets play basketball!
Fitness
Do a little bit of exercise every morning after I wake up for 30 days- 30th April 2016 - I have successfully done my 7 minute morning work-out every day this month!Run 10km in under 55 minutes- 9th May 2017 - I ran 11.73km in 63 minutes, and went passed the 10km mark in around 52:30!- Run 15km in under 85 minutes
- Run a half-marathon
- Do a triathlon
Bench press 70kg (8 reps)- 24th March 2017 - After almost 3 months of regularly going to the gym, I've now got to this goal and am ready to hit my next one!- Shoulder press 2x25kg weights for 8 reps
Personal Development
Speak French (pretty much) fluently- 21st December 2016 - Having spent 3 and a half months in France, I reckon I'd now class myself as pretty much fluent! I lack some vocabulary, but other than that, I'm happy!Speak Spanish (pretty much) fluently- 28th April 2017 - Having spent 4 months in Spain, I reckon I'm also pretty much fluent in Spanish!- Speak German well
Learn basic HTML and CSS- 30th June 2018 - I've worked qquite a bit with HTML and CSS in creating websites, and think I am fairly proficient now!- Learn Python
- Learn to surf (properly)
Learn to waterski- 20th August 2019 - Having waterkied 4 times now, I'm confident I can waterski without falling over for at least 1 minute.- Learn to wakeboard
Learn the basics of ballroom dance- 16th June 2014 - After 3 months of training, I was able to dance the Waltz, Quickstep, Cha Cha Cha and Jive… ish!- Become good enough that my girlfriend wouldn’t be too embarrassed to ballroom dance with me :p
The Ultimate Goal To Never Forget
“Be as happy as possible while making as many other people as possible happy.”
Want to create your own Impossible List?
Why not Download my word document template (including some examples from my list above) so that you can quickly get started yourself?
Get Your Impossible List Template
This is a free word document template to get you started with making your own Impossible List!
It’s definitely worth taking a little bit of time to make sure you set yourself really positive, stretching but also possible (in spite of the list’s name) goals.
In my post, Set and Achieve Goals: My Tried-And-Tested System, I take you through exactly how to choose your Focus Goals for the month, to break those goals down into manageable chunks and to start to really feel like you are making the impossible possible!