There’s no doubt that we all want to achieve some goal, whether to begin investing, get into the top school, or even find a life partner. However, because most of us lack a goal-setting framework, we have difficulty getting there or never getting there at all. During the process, we lose our motivation.
I finished reading Principles: Life & Work by Ray Dalio back in 2020, a practical book was written by a billionaire, hedge fund manager, and founder of Bridgewater Associates. Ray Dalio lays up a 5-step framework for achieving practically any goal in that book. I’ll walk you through the proven framework step by step.
Step 1: Mindset (have clear goals)
Mr. Dalio said that we must first clear our minds and communicate with our brains that this is the goal we aspire to achieve. To reach that goal, we must step outside of our comfort zone. We don’t often provide our brain-specific instructions with a time limit. Simply ask yourself this simple question: Is it true every time we want to do something? We literally ask ourselves the following question.
Is our goal even possible to achieve, and how realistic is it?
I can tell you that I frequently ask the same question and then quit my goal. Dalio takes a different approach, separating this question from the equation of goal-setting. Another exercise I recommend is this one. This idea originates from Tony Robbins, who says in his book that when he was younger, he went to the beach and sat for 3 hours writing down all the goals he wanted to achieve in the following 20 days, 20 months, or 20 years, without even considering if they were attainable. I went through the process and came up with 100+ goals that I want to outline in my 100-day challenge goal in the coming 3 months.
When you reach your audacious goals, you will gain new skills along the way. According to Mr. Dalio, you should not base your goals on your existing expertise, and you should not trash your goals if they appear impossible in your current position. Great expectations create excellent capabilities. We will continue to Step #2, after creating a list of goals.
Step 2: Problems (Identify problems)
Naturally, we’re constantly reluctant to point out our weaknesses. That’s how we grow up because society teaches us that having a weakness is bad when actually, it’s an opportunity to improve or seek out someone who knows more about the problem. The important here is that when we make goals, we must be completely honest with ourselves, and you can’t discover difficulties if you can’t admit your weaknesses. Allowing your ego to hide your weaknesses can undermine your goal-setting process.
For example, I’ve launched a challenge on Medium to write 100 posts in 100-day, and I need to be aware of my weaknesses; otherwise, it’ll be hard to meet such an ambitious goal of publishing every day. As a result, after developing a strategy, I needed to identify my weaknesses. My weakness is to do 2–3 things at one time. I’m trying to overcome this obstacle by reading a lot about concentrating.
The Pomodoro technique is proving to be quite effective in this situation. I know that my strength is effectively researching a topic, but staying focused on the topic while writing is challenging. That’s my weakness, and I’m doing the 100-post challenge to improve it over the next 100-day substantially. After defining the goals and identifying the problems, it’s time to put in the root cause variable.
Step 3: Diagnose the root cause
This is the most crucial phase; as Ray describes in his book, you must spend enough time diagnosing the problem before moving on to the solution. Problems aren’t always as serious as they look. As a result, we must first conduct thorough research to find the root of the problem.
In my 100-day challenge, for example, I had to figure out why I was distracted or couldn’t focus on one thing for an extended period. I concluded that my phone’s alerts bothered me, so I just went back to the never-ending scrolling pattern. The easiest method for determining the root cause is to ask 5 whys before proceeding further. Yes, question 5 times why this is happening to get to the root of the problem. After diagnosing the problem, it’s time to jump on step#4 to design the solution.
Step 4: Design the solution
After carefully completing the 3 steps above, Ray says it’s time to develop the solution. Now we know where we were and where we’re going, as well as why we got to this point and didn’t achieve our goal. Consider your solution to be a series of outputs from a machine, but those outputs are contingent on the input, which is the root cause.
At this point, you have various options for achieving your goal. As Ray demonstrates, think of your solution design like a movie script, from character development to conclusion. If you’re part of a group, jot down your design solution and share it with the rest of the team for comments. He highlights the need to visualize what must be done and what will happen. Then fine-tune it.
For example, I believe that writing 100 blogs in 100-day will be a difficult task. I can see how productive it will be, but achieving it will create some challenges. To increase accountability, I also make my goal more visible by putting it on Medium. As a result, if my brain chooses to skip writing today due to laziness, I have a framework to visualize my design solution and keep on track to develop a consistent habit. Now It’s time to move on to step #5, execution, after completing our design solution.
Step 5: Doing (execution)
Ray explains that we are in a solid position to execute our plan after completing the previous 4-steps. At this moment, you must push yourself in order to reach the desired boundary. Rather than being reactive to daily duties that may divert you from your goal, you must be proactive and self-disciplined.
Personally, I am not too fond of the thought of forcing myself to do something. My goal of 100 posts in 100-day, for example, is to get me in the habit of writing at least one article every day. As a result, this technique will help me without forcing myself to write for 90 minutes every day, including editing my articles. As I previously stated, making my post public will hold me accountable to publish on a regular basis.
Conclusion
Because of my excellent work ethic, I will skillfully reach my goal. I know it’s my strength; if it’s in my calendar, it’ll happen. I’ll be unstoppable after entering all of my variables into Ray Dalio’s 5-step framework. I hope you will use this framework to achieve your ambitions goals.
If you want to read more case studies about Ray Dalio, I invite you to read his book on this Amazon affiliate link, Principles of Life and Work.
