In life and at work, it's easy to get stuck with an incremental mindset. How can I make the situation 1% better? This can get us stuck though and sometimes it helps to step back and figure out what is the north star. ### In personal life This is the second of [[Book Summaries/The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey|7 Habits]]: begin with the end in mind. Where are you trying to get? Covey recommends thinking about your eulogy virtues. What do you want your life to have been about? It's also a good tactical framework for self-improvement. What would an A+ behavior look like in the situation I'm currently in? What do I want my life to look like not in 2, but in 20 years? ### At work At work this is a classic for PMs. Amazon has a [whole book about it](https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595), but the idea is to write the press release before you even started the project. Especially when you have a good understanding of the problem space, this is really helpful: rather than looking for the next best step, try to zoom out and look for what would you do if you had no limits. Equally tricky to finding what's "the end goal", is tying the incremental day-to-day to the end. For this, it's helpful to be [[Macro patient, micro impatient]]. #published 2025-01-13