Work toward proximate objectives

🌱 Seedling · 1 min

Rather than setting overly ambitious goals, which can be demotivating if it takes too long to reach them, set proximate objectives instead. Proximate objectives are relatively easy to attain, and they give you momentum and context that you can use for your next battle.

Repeat this multiple times, and you’ll eventually get where you want to go—or somewhere else entirely, but it will still be a valuable result.

If you’re unsure what proximate objective makes the most sense based on your long-term plan, or you’re not sure what your long-term plan is in the first place, try to pick the one that is neutral for all possible directions, i.e., the one that adds value no matter what. This is also called “eliminating the cost of a mistake.”

References

  • The Crux
  • [[the-iterative-adjacent-possible|The Iterative Adjacent Possible]]
  • [[brain-food-earned-success|Brain Food Earned Success]]
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© 2025 Alessandro Desantis