"My 5-Step Process to Getting What You Want Out of Life" on the page 24 of "Principles" by Ray Dalio

Five things that you have to do to get what you want out of life.

1. Have your clear goals. (determine your direction, design a plan to achieve your goals)

2. Identify and don't tolerate the problems that stand in the way of achieving your goals. (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. Accurately diagnose these problems. (calm and analytical)

4. Design plans that explicitly lay our tasks that will get you around your problems and on to your goals.

5. Implement these plans -- i.e., do these tasks.

You need to do all of these steps well in order to be successful.

A few general points about the process:

1) You must approach these as distinct steps rather than blur them together (since the process is iterative.)

2) Each of these five steps requires different talents and disciples. (recognize your weakness and design around them) So you must be honestly self-reflective.

3) It is essential to approach this process in a very clear-headed, rational way rather than emotionally. (Figure out what techniques work best for you.)

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. This is the process of personal evolution, which Ray calls his 5-Step Process.

Note: "You" here is the strategic you -- the one who is deciding on what you want and how best to get it

See yourself and others objectively. People should do what they're good at. Nobody can do everything well.

On the page 24 of "Principles", Ray wrote:

Let's imagine that your goal is to have a winning basketball team. Wouldn't it be silly to put yourself in a position that you don't play well? If you did, you wouldn't get what you want. Whatever your goals are, achieving them works the same way.

(snip)

... nobody can do everything well.

The biggest mistake most people make is to not see themselves and others objectively. If they could just get around this, they could live up to their potentials.

Note: boldface and underline indications in the first paragraph by the author of this article

Principles

Ray Dalio wrote in the section of Introduction of his "Princples" as follows:

Principles are ways of successfully dealing with the laws of nature or the laws of life. Those who understand more of them and understand them well know how to interact with the world more effectively than those who know fewer of them or know them less well.

(snip)

... when digesting each principle, please...

...ask yourself: "Is it true?"

Those who are most successful

Ray Dalio wrote on the page 22 of his "Princples" as follows:

Those who are most successful are capable of "higher level thinking" -- i.e., they are able to step back and design a "machine" consisting of the right people doing the right things to get what they want. They are able to assess and improve how their "machine" works by comparing the outcomes that the machine is producing with the goals.

(snip)

... your goals will determine the "machine" that you create to achieve them; that machine will produce outcomes that you should compare with your goals to judge how your machine is working. Your "machine" will consist of the design and people you choose to achieve the goals.

Note: boldface indications by the author

When we see people who are successful in his or her professional and private lives, we can see some common factors.

Machine

• Design
• Successful people are good at building systems that give others incentives to work harder.
• People
• Successful people can build good relationships with others around them.
• Successful people can ask others to do things based on their knowledge, skills, and experience. Others satisfy their esteem needs.

Outcomes

• Nobody can do everything well at the very beginning. Successful people make the best use of feedback after their trial and error.

Goals

• People need short/mid/long-term goals (plus deadline) in order to prioritise and do things effectively in a timely manner.