5 Step Process for Success by Ray Dalio

From Ray Dalio’s excellent Principles.

There are five things that you have to do to get what you want out of life.

This is the process of personal evolution, which I call my 5-Step Process.In other words, “The Process” consists of five distinct steps:

1. Have clear goals.
2. Identify and don’t tolerate the problems that stand in the way of achieving your goals.
3. Accurately diagnose these problems.
4. Design plans that explicitly lay out tasks that will get you around your problems and on to your goal.
5. Implement these plans—i.e., do these tasks

1. Choose your Goals

First, you have to choose your goals, which will determine your direction.

Then you have to design a plan to achieve your goals.

2. Encounter Problems and don’t run from the pain

On the way to your goals, you will encounter problems. As I mentioned, these problems typically cause pain. The most common source of pain is in exploring your mistakes and weaknesses. You will either react badly to the pain or react like a master problem solver. That is your choice.

3. Diagnose the Problem

To figure out how to get around these problems you must be calm and analytical to accurately diagnose your problems.

4. Design a Plan

Only after you have an accurate diagnosis of them can you design a plan that will get you around your problems.

5. Implement the Plan

Then you have to do the tasks specified in the plan.

Through this process of encountering problems and figuring out how to get around them, you will become progressively more capable and achieve your goals more easily. Then you will set bigger, more challenging goals, in the same way that someone who works with weights naturally increases the poundage.