The 5-Step Process

Prioritize: While you can have virtually anything you want, you can't have everything you want.

Think about what you want out of life and make your work a path to getting it.

Recognize when to ride the wave.

Don't confuse goals with desires.

Decide what you really want in life by reconciling your goals and your desires.

Don't mistake the trappings of success for success itself.

Never rule out a goal because you think it's unattainable.

Remember that great expectations create great capabilities.

Almost nothing can stop you from succeeding if you have a) flexibility and b) self-accountability.

Knowing how to deal well with your setbacks is as important as knowing how to move forward.

View painful problems as potential improvements that are screaming at you.

Don't avoid confronting problems because they are rooted in harsh realities that are unpleasant to look at.

Be specific in identifying your problems.

Don't mistake a cause of a problem with the real problem.

Distinguish big problems from small ones.

Once you identify a problem, don't tolerate it.

Focus on the 'what is' before deciding 'what to do about it.'

Distinguish proximate causes from root causes.

Recognize that knowing what someone (including you) is like will tell you what you can expect from them.

Go back before you go forward.

Think about your problem as a set of outcomes produced by a machine.

Remember that there are typically many paths to achieving your goals.

Think of your plan as being like a movie script in that you visualize who will do what through time.

Write down your plan for everyone to see and to measure your progress against.

Recognize that it doesn't take a lot of time to design a good plan.

Great planners who don't execute their plans go nowhere.

Good work habits are vastly underrated.

Establish clear metrics to make certain that you are following your plan.

Remember that weaknesses don't matter if you find solutions.

Look at the patterns of your mistakes and identify at which step in the 5-Step Process you typically fail.

Everyone has at least one big thing that stands in the way of their success; find yours and deal with it.

Understand your own and others' mental maps and humility.