The Blind Spot in Goal-Setting
We’ve been trained since childhood to set goals. What do you want to be when you grow up? Where do you see yourself in five years? What are your ambitions? The entire self-improvement industry is built on teaching people to articulate what they want, create vision boards, set SMART goals, and pursue their dreams with unwavering focus.
But as Sahil Bloom reveals in “The 5 Types of Wealth,” this relentless focus on what you want creates a dangerous blind spot: you never think carefully about what you don’t want. You spend years chasing a destination without considering whether the path to get there requires becoming someone you’d hate, or whether arrival means living a life you’d despise.
The result is what Bloom calls the “successful misery” epidemic: people who achieve their stated goals only to discover they’ve climbed the wrong mountain, sacrificed what actually mattered, or created a life that looks impressive but feels empty. They knew where they were going; they just never stopped to ask where they didn’t want to end up.
The antidote is what Bloom explores in “The 5 Types of Wealth” as “anti-goals”—a framework popularized by entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson and rooted in the wisdom of investor Charlie Munger. Anti-goals are about defining what you want to avoid just as clearly as what you want to achieve. They’re the boundaries that keep you from accidentally pursuing success into misery.
Charlie Munger’s Inversion Principle
The concept of anti-goals draws from Charlie Munger’s investment philosophy of “inversion”—approaching problems by thinking backwards. Munger, Warren Buffett’s long-time business partner and one of the most successful investors in history, is famous for his advice: “Invert, always invert.”
Rather than just asking “How do I succeed?” Munger asks “How do I fail?” and then works to avoid those failure modes. Rather than just seeking good investments, he identifies characteristics of bad investments and avoids them. Rather than just pursuing what he wants, he clearly defines what he doesn’t want and ensures he never ends up there.
As Bloom explains in “The 5 Types of Wealth,” this inversion principle is counterintuitive but powerful. It’s often easier to identify what you definitely don’t want than to perfectly articulate what you do want. And avoiding clear negatives often matters more than optimizing for unclear positives.
Consider a simple example: You might not know exactly what career would make you happiest, but you probably know with certainty that you don’t want a job requiring constant travel, working for an abusive boss, or in an industry you find morally reprehensible. Avoiding those clear negatives immediately eliminates many paths, clarifying which directions might be worth exploring.
Anti-goals work because avoiding what you definitely don’t want is often easier and more actionable than achieving what you think you might want. And the life you create by avoiding clear negatives is usually better than the life you create by blindly chasing ambiguous positives.
Andrew Wilkinson’s Anti-Goal Epiphany
In “The 5 Types of Wealth,” Bloom references a 2017 conversation between entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson and his business partner that changed how Wilkinson thought about goal-setting. They were discussing their future aspirations when Wilkinson’s partner asked a different question: “Instead of talking about what we want, what if we identified what we wanted to avoid?”
This shift in perspective was revelatory. Wilkinson realized he had clarity about what he didn’t want that exceeded his clarity about what he did want. He knew he didn’t want to commute in traffic daily. He didn’t want to sit in endless meetings. He didn’t want to be enslaved to his calendar. He didn’t want to sacrifice time with family for work demands. He didn’t want to work with people he didn’t respect or enjoy.
These anti-goals became powerful filters for decisions. When evaluating opportunities—new businesses, partnerships, investments—Wilkinson asked not just “Will this help me achieve my goals?” but “Will this require accepting any of my anti-goals?” If yes, it was an automatic no, regardless of potential upside.
To paraphrase Munger’s wisdom that Bloom cites: Anti-goals are about knowing where you’re going to die and never going there. They’re about identifying the failure modes, the life outcomes you’d regret, the compromises you’d resent—and then structuring your life to ensure you never end up in those situations.
Creating Your Anti-Goals
In “The 5 Types of Wealth,” Bloom provides a framework for developing your own anti-goals. The process isn’t about being negative or pessimistic—it’s about achieving clarity on what you’re unwilling to sacrifice in pursuit of success.
Step 1: Envision the Nightmare
Rather than envisioning your ideal life (which you’ve probably done), envision your nightmare life. What would a truly terrible life look like for you? Be specific:
- What work situation would make you miserable?
- What relationships would you dread?
- What daily routines would make you feel trapped?
- What would your health look like if you neglected it completely?
- What financial situation would create chronic stress?
- What would you regret on your deathbed?
This isn’t morbid—it’s clarifying. Most people have never explicitly articulated what they’re trying to avoid, which makes them vulnerable to accidentally pursuing it.
Step 2: Identify the Patterns
In your nightmare scenario, what are the common themes? Often, anti-goals cluster around a few key dimensions:
Time Anti-Goals: “I don’t want to be enslaved to my calendar.” “I don’t want to feel perpetually busy with no time for what matters.” “I don’t want to sacrifice family time for work demands.”
Social Anti-Goals: “I don’t want superficial relationships masquerading as friendships.” “I don’t want to work with people I don’t respect.” “I don’t want to be isolated and alone.”
Mental Anti-Goals: “I don’t want to feel chronically anxious and stressed.” “I don’t want to stop learning and growing.” “I don’t want to lose my curiosity.”
Physical Anti-Goals: “I don’t want to be dependent on others for basic mobility.” “I don’t want to neglect my health until it’s too late.” “I don’t want to be overweight and low-energy.”
Financial Anti-Goals: “I don’t want to live paycheck to paycheck.” “I don’t want to be enslaved to debt.” “I don’t want to sacrifice everything for money I’ll never enjoy.”
Step 3: Make Them Specific and Actionable
Vague anti-goals don’t help with decisions. “I don’t want to be unhappy” is too broad. But “I don’t want a job requiring more than 10 days of travel per month” is specific enough to evaluate opportunities against.
Bloom recommends selecting 3-5 anti-goals per dimension of wealth (Time, Social, Mental, Physical, Financial) that are:
- Specific enough to guide decisions: You can clearly determine whether an opportunity violates an anti-goal
- Personally meaningful: Based on your values, not borrowed from others
- Proactive not reactive: Derived from self-reflection, not just avoiding recent bad experiences
- Stable enough to be useful: Not so changeable that they provide no consistent direction
Step 4: Use Anti-Goals as Filters
Once established, anti-goals become powerful decision-making tools. Before accepting any significant opportunity, ask:
“Does this opportunity require accepting or increase the likelihood of any of my anti-goals?”
If yes, it’s probably a no—regardless of other attractive features. This simple filter prevents the “successful misery” trap where you achieve goals that required compromises you weren’t willing to make.
Example Anti-Goals from “The 5 Types of Wealth”
Bloom shares various anti-goal examples throughout the book:
Career Anti-Goals
- “I don’t want to have a job that requires me to spend more than 10 days per month away from my family”
- “I don’t want to work with people who don’t share my values”
- “I don’t want a career that requires sacrificing my physical health”
- “I don’t want to be in an industry that conflicts with my ethics”
- “I don’t want to report to someone I don’t respect”
Lifestyle Anti-Goals
- “I don’t want to commute more than 30 minutes each way”
- “I don’t want to live somewhere my kids won’t have a great childhood”
- “I don’t want lifestyle that requires working until I’m 70”
- “I don’t want to be house-poor, spending all my income on housing”
- “I don’t want to sacrifice experiences for possessions”
Relationship Anti-Goals
- “I don’t want relationships maintained out of obligation rather than genuine connection”
- “I don’t want to be absent from my children’s formative years”
- “I don’t want to prioritize career networking over actual friendships”
- “I don’t want to be too busy for the people who matter most”
- “I don’t want to become isolated in pursuit of success”
Health Anti-Goals
- “I don’t want to reach 60 unable to play with my grandchildren”
- “I don’t want to sacrifice sleep for productivity”
- “I don’t want to be sedentary and low-energy”
- “I don’t want chronic pain from neglecting my body”
- “I don’t want to need multiple medications because I didn’t invest in prevention”
Notice that these anti-goals are specific, personal, and actionable. They provide clear guidance for decisions while being flexible enough to allow many paths forward.
The Anti-Goals Advantage
Why are anti-goals so powerful? Bloom identifies several key advantages in “The 5 Types of Wealth”:
1. Clarity Through Negation
It’s often easier to know what you don’t want than to perfectly articulate what you do want. Your dream career might be unclear, but you probably know with certainty you don’t want to work 80-hour weeks for a micromanager in a cubicle doing work that feels meaningless. That clarity eliminates many paths immediately.
2. Protection Against “Successful Misery”
Anti-goals prevent you from achieving goals through means you’d regret. You might want to be wealthy, but your anti-goal of “not sacrificing family time” prevents you from pursuing wealth in ways that would make you miserable. The anti-goal protects against Pyrrhic victories.
3. Decision-Making Speed
When opportunities arise, anti-goals allow rapid filtering. Does this violate an anti-goal? Then it’s a no, regardless of potential upside. This saves enormous time and mental energy that would otherwise be spent agonizing over decisions.
4. Regret Minimization
Bezos’s “regret minimization framework” asks what you’ll regret in the future. Anti-goals operationalize this by identifying specific outcomes you know you’d regret and avoiding them proactively rather than discovering regret retrospectively.
5. Value Alignment
Anti-goals ensure your path aligns with your values. You might pursue a goal that sounds good but requires compromises that violate your values. Anti-goals make those value violations explicit before you commit.
Anti-Goals for Each Wealth Dimension
In “The 5 Types of Wealth,” Bloom provides specific anti-goal examples for each dimension:
Time Wealth Anti-Goals
Common ones include:
- Allowing calendar to be controlled by others’ urgencies
- Spending time on activities that drain without creating value
- Sacrificing presence for productivity
- Being perpetually busy without ever feeling caught up
- Working so hard during “prime years” that you’re too depleted to enjoy “retirement”
Social Wealth Anti-Goals
Common ones include:
- Maintaining friendships out of obligation rather than genuine connection
- Being so focused on networking that you have contacts but no friends
- Sacrificing family relationships for career advancement
- Becoming isolated through overwork
- Confusing social media followers with actual community
Mental Wealth Anti-Goals
Common ones include:
- Chronic anxiety and rumination dominating mental state
- Losing curiosity and intellectual engagement
- Being unable to be present due to constant distraction
- Fixed mindset preventing growth
- Living in reactive mode rather than thoughtful choice
Physical Wealth Anti-Goals
Common ones include:
- Reaching old age unable to move independently
- Chronic pain from neglect
- Dependence on multiple medications for preventable conditions
- Low energy limiting life engagement
- Sacrificing health during “building years” assuming it can be recovered later
Financial Wealth Anti-Goals
Common ones include:
- Living paycheck to paycheck regardless of income level
- Being enslaved to debt
- Sacrificing all other wealth types for financial wealth
- Never defining “enough” and perpetually chasing more
- Reaching financial independence only to discover you sacrificed everything else
Combining Goals and Anti-Goals
The power of anti-goals, as Bloom emphasizes, comes from combining them with traditional goals. Goals tell you where to go; anti-goals tell you where not to go. Together, they create a navigation system.
Imagine goals as your destination and anti-goals as dangerous terrain to avoid. You might not know the exact optimal path to your destination, but knowing which routes definitely lead to places you don’t want to go eliminates many options and clarifies your navigation.
For example:
Goal: Build a successful career doing meaningful work Anti-Goals:
- No more than 50 hours/week on average
- No jobs requiring constant travel
- No working for companies with values I oppose
- No sacrificing family dinners
- No commutes over 30 minutes
These anti-goals don’t tell you exactly what career to pursue, but they dramatically narrow the options and ensure that whatever success you achieve doesn’t require accepting outcomes you’d regret. You’re free to explore many paths toward your goal, as long as none violate your anti-goals.
When to Update Anti-Goals
Anti-goals should be relatively stable—changing them too frequently defeats their purpose as guiding principles. But as Bloom notes in “The 5 Types of Wealth,” they should evolve as you do:
Life Stage Changes: What you want to avoid in your 20s might differ from your 40s. The single person’s anti-goals around travel might change after having children. The young professional’s anti-goals around career intensity might shift as they approach retirement.
Major Life Events: Illness, loss of loved ones, or other significant experiences can clarify what matters and what doesn’t. Your anti-goals should reflect this evolved understanding.
Values Evolution: As you mature and your understanding deepens, your values may shift. Your anti-goals should align with your current values, not outdated versions of yourself.
Bloom recommends reviewing your anti-goals annually, asking: “Do these still reflect what I want to avoid? Have any become less important? Are there new anti-goals I should add based on recent experiences or insights?”
The Liberation of Constraints
Perhaps the most counterintuitive aspect of anti-goals is that they’re liberating rather than limiting. You might think that adding constraints (things you won’t do, situations you’ll avoid) would restrict your options and make success harder. But as Bloom demonstrates, the opposite is true.
Anti-goals eliminate decision paralysis by removing entire categories of options from consideration. They prevent the “successful misery” trap by ensuring your path aligns with your values. They save time and mental energy by providing clear filters for opportunities. And they make “no” easier to say, which is essential for protecting what matters.
As Bloom writes in “The 5 Types of Wealth”: “The person without anti-goals is like a ship without a map of dangerous waters. They might reach their destination, but they’re just as likely to crash on rocks they never thought to avoid. The person with clear anti-goals knows where the dangerous waters are and can navigate confidently, knowing that wherever they end up, it won’t be somewhere they didn’t want to go.”
Conclusion: The Wisdom of Knowing Where Not to Go
As Sahil Bloom powerfully demonstrates throughout “The 5 Types of Wealth,” anti-goals aren’t pessimism—they’re wisdom. They’re the hard-won understanding that knowing where you don’t want to end up is just as important, perhaps more important, than knowing where you do.
The trap of pure goal-focus is that it can lead you to achieve things you thought you wanted through means you’d hate, arriving at destinations you’d regret. Anti-goals prevent this by making your values and boundaries explicit before you commit to paths that might violate them.
The successful person isn’t necessarily the one who achieved the most impressive goals. It’s the person who built a life they don’t regret—who reached destinations worth arriving at through paths they were willing to walk. Anti-goals are the map that makes this navigation possible.
So before setting your next goal, ask yourself: What do I definitely want to avoid? What outcomes would I regret? What compromises am I unwilling to make? What would my nightmare life look like? And then, perhaps most importantly: Are any of my current goals leading me toward any of my anti-goals?
As Charlie Munger taught us and Bloom reminds us: “It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent.” Know where you don’t want to die, and never go there. That might be the wisest goal of all.
About “The 5 Types of Wealth”: Sahil Bloom’s “The 5 Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life” (Ballantine Books, 2025) explores five dimensions of genuine wealth through both goals and anti-goals. The book introduces the anti-goal framework as an essential tool for ensuring that the pursuit of success doesn’t accidentally lead to regret, providing readers with practical methods for identifying what to avoid and using those boundaries to navigate toward lives worth living across Time, Social, Mental, Physical, and Financial dimensions.