Hey seb,
I read the dalio principles when you first mentioned it. The thing that really struck with me is the process to get anything you really want done. This guy knows what he's talking about (Forbes 400 anyone?).
What I really loved with it is how he explains that you must take hours to create the plan before you sit down and do do do.
For so long in my life, I felt guilty/wrong for spending hours on designing a plan instead of actually working. This led me to create a half-assed plan and to not follow through, everytime.
This time, it's different. I'm following his procedure to get what I want and I'm literally investing hours of my time to create a plan that I will follow (using the must-do first vs i like to do).
Let me summarize it in a nutshell for the readers out there. Seriously, this is AWESOME, just like a golden recipe for achieving successfully goals that are linked to your values. Let's do this:
"Values->Goals->Identify Problems->Diagnose problems (real root causes)->Designing a plan->Doing the plan"
1) Discovering your values - "Everything you do has to resonate with your inner values ". I recommend using Steve Pavlina's list of values as a start, go through it and identify yours: http://www.stevepavlina.com/articles/list-of-values.htm
2) Setting goals - "Once you commit to a goal, it might take lots of thinking and many revisions to your plan over a considerable time period in order to finalize the design and do the tasks to achieve it. So you need to set goals without yet assessing wether or not you can achieve them". Set HIGH goals even if you don't know how to do them. You need ambitious goals to keep yourself motivated. You will find how to reach it along the way. "Avoid setting goals based on what you think you can achieve."
3) Identifying and not tolerating problems - "While it can be tempting to react emotionally to problems and seek sympathy or blame others, this accomplishes nothing. Whatever the reasons, you have to get over the impediments to succeed. Remember that the pains you are feeling are "growing pains" that will test your character and reward you if you push through them. Try to look at your problems as a detached observer would. Remember that identifying problems is like finding gems embedded in puzzles; if you solve the puzzles you will get the gems that will make your life much better. Doing this continuously will lead to your rapid evolution. So, if you're logical, you really should get EXCITED about finding problems because identifying them will BRING YOU CLOSER TO YOUR GOALS."
4) Diagnosing the problems - "You will be much more effective if you focus on diagnosis and design rather than jumping to solutions. It is a very common mistake for people to move directly from identifying a tough problem to a proposed solution in a nanosecond without spending the hours required to properly diagnose and design a solution. You must be calm and logical. You must get at the root causes. More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to thei rpotential from those who don't is a willingness to look at themselves and others objectively. There is no getting around the fact that achieveing success requires getting at the root causes of all important problems, and people's mistakes and weaknesses are sometimes the root causes. So to be successful, you must be willing to look at your own behavior and the behavior of others as possible causes of problems."
5) Designing the Plan - "...an effective design requires thinking things through and visualizing how things will come together and unfold over time. You should visualize this plan through time, like watching a movie that connects your past, present and future. Then write down the plan so you don't lose sight of it, and include who needs to do what and when. The list of tasks falls out from this story (the plan), but they are not the same. The story, or plan, is what connects your goals to the tasks. For you to succeed, you must not lose sight of the goals or the story while focusing on the tasks; you must constantly refer back and forth.
6) Do - Simply refer to this post :) Important to prioritize rationally and do the must-do's first - and giving it your best shot ever everytime.
:)
