“high but not the highest intelligence, combined with the greatest degree of persistence will achieve greater eminence than the highest degree of intelligence with somewhat less persistence.”
Stanford psychologist, Catharine Cox
The problem with goals is that they are either too far out or very short-term. And there’s nothing in between connecting them.
One of the things games do well is to show you a clear progression by providing feedback on your current level and where you need to ultimately go to finish your game.
Games break up your journey by providing immediate feedback on how you’re doing and also providing you with navigational aids to reach your final destination. Can games show us how to design better goals?
Angela Duckworth, the author of Grit, suggests creating high-level goals, mid-level goals and low-level goals. She argues based on scientific studies that Grit, a combination of passion and perseverance, is one of the defining factors of successful people.
In other words, Grit is about pursuing a long-term goal, for a long time and not giving up. But we get sidetracked by distractions and life events.
Would it help if we designed goals that connected our weekly goals, yearly goals and long-term goals together with visual progression feedback?
A high-level goal is your life’s mission. It’s an end in itself. Can you tattoo your high-level goal? Because it’s a goal you are not going to change.
A low-level goal is only a means to an end. If you fail, you can try again or change the low-level goal till you find the most efficient way of doing it. These are experiments you conduct in the short term. The cost of failure is minimal.
Mid-level goals can be set in a way to unify and give direction to your low-level goals. They connect what you do on a day to day basis to your long term vision.
In productivity terms, the goal hierarchy could be implemented in the following way:
A 10-year vision of where you want to be and who you want to become as your high-level goal
A yearly plan and a 12-Week Plan to give you direction in the medium term
A weekly Agenda to drive your day-to-day activities
