A Practical Framework to Execute Your Goals

The 4D Goal Execution Framework

Ola King
12 min readJan 15, 2020
achieve your goal
Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

We make new year’s resolutions that never go anywhere. We sign up for gym memberships that we quit a month later. We start new diets that we don’t stick with. As I’m writing this, I’m looking at a long list of incomplete articles that I will probably never get around to publishing.

SMART Goals, BHAG, OKRs etc. Most of us already know these guides and frameworks that are supposed to provide silver bullets to help us achieve our goals, but they fall short on fulfilling that promise . Why ? 🤔

In the internet age, the availability of information we need to achieve our goals is not a problem anymore. The problem is knowing the right information we need, at the right time and taking action.

In the last 4 years, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of productivity/self-help and read 30+ books that are aimed at helping one achieve goals and becoming a better performer. Eventually, I started noticing an interesting pattern among them — they all fall under just 4 basic pillars!

Example: S.M.A.R.T goals mainly focuses on the types of goals to set – your goal should be Specific Measurable Achievable Realist and Timely. But this doesn’t really tell you what to do to actually make the goal happen, or what to do when shit hits the fan(as most things do).

There’s something missing with all these books, courses and systems— something that ties them all together. A simple consistent framework that lets you know what you need to focus on at any point, in the pursuit of your goals.

Let’s call it the 4D Goal Execution Framework.

This article explains what it is, how I use it, some resources in each element and where it may not work.

What is the 4D Goal Execution Framework?

Books that help you achieve your goals

The 4D Goal Execution Framework is a comprehensive mental model that covers all aspects that you can control and act on, in pursuit of any goal. It’s a framework that can be consistently used to determine what is needed towards achieving any goal.

What are the elements of the 4D Goal Execution Framework?

1. Desire

2. Decision

3. Design

4. Discipline

Desire

“You can’t hit a target you can’t see, and you can’t see a target that you don’t have”

The desire in this context means your goal – the objective or result you want to achieve.

It’s common knowledge that you need to set goals in order to achieve them.

Most of your desires are influenced by various factors like your roles in society, your psychology, mood, level of education, social circle, upbringing etc.

Desires are more powerful when you write them down.

A lot of your desires/goals will also trigger sub-goals or related goals that complement them.

Example of Tools/ Resources that help formulate good desire or goal

SMART Goals

OKR (For businesses)

Chef vs Cook

Your Environment

Start with the why

Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

etc.

Example of a goal

After trips to New York and San Francisco, I realized that big cities felt more natural to me and I tend to thrive better in those types of fast-paced, competitive environments. At the same time, I was also feeling stagnant in Newfoundland. So I desired to move to a new city.

Goal 1: Move to a new city.

Which also triggered-

Goal 2: Afford lifestyle in the new city.

Decision

“The word decision or decide literally means “to cut off” in other words, to “kill” the other options.”

This is where you evaluate the different ways you can execute your goal, then decide based on your understanding of your values, principles and wants.

Decision making is one of the most important skills. Generally, the more education, experience and exposure you have, the better your decision-making ability.

You need to be real with your self about your resources, abilities, values etc, when making decisions.

Evaluate what you have at your disposal, then decide 1. If you indeed want to pursue this goal, and 2. Which of the available options will make the most sense to make this goal happen.

You can’t always make the ‘right decision’, so don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis . Once you’ve made a decision, don’t look back. Instead focus your thoughts and energy towards making a plan to execute on that decision. Unless there’s a change in the conditions that the decision was based on.

Tools/ Resources that help make better decisions

Feasibility studies

Pros vs cons lists

Doing some research

Having solid personal principles, and vision and mission statements

Books:

Principles

Thinking in bets

Thinking fast vs Slow

Smart Choices

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work

Predictably Irrational

Blink by Malcom Gladwell

The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz

The Art of Thinking Clearly

Example of a decision towards a goal

Goal: Move to a new city:
My options were Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Ottawa or Calgary:

  1. I enquired with my network in those cities on various factors.

2. I created a pros vs cons spreadsheet to compare each city.

3. I assigned weighted values to different criteria that were important to me(e.g population, tech scene, weather, culture, lifestyle etc).

4. I then scored each city on each criteria and I used the aggregate result to pick a city to move to.

Seeing the data to back my decision made it a no-brainer for me to choose Vancouver. It was also a good re-assurance for when the doubt and overthinking crept in.

Goal 2: Afford Lifestyle:
For this, I had a bunch of options that I considered:

Option 1: Start a business to generate passive income.

Option 2: Negotiate remote position with current employer

Option 3: Apply for new jobs in the new city.

Option 4: Save as much money as possible.

Option 1 : From my experience with my previous startup, I knew it takes time to start earning money in any meaningful business. And it’s super difficult to grow a business with no income elsewhere or a pile of personal savings.

Sure I could sell t-shirts, start a dropshipping business, or other quick money schemes. But I had long decided I didn’t want to do any business that wasn’t sustainable or aligned with my values and long-term goals. So this was ruled out for now.

Option 2 : I talked to my employer at the time about taking on a remote role, but they were not in a place to support that. So this was also ruled out.

Option 3 : This was the solution that was better aligned with my ongoing goal(to learn as much as possible from others) and also the safest of all options, so I decided to start working on getting another job in Vancouver

Option 4: Saving money was something I could do while job hunting- to increase my financial runway. So I decided to save as much as I could while I was applying for jobs ✅

Design

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”

This is where you design a plan of HOW to achieve your goal.

There’s been a lot of debate over what’s better between a goal vs a system. I think the best solution is actually a fusion of the two. Have a goal that your efforts are directed towards, then create a system for achieving that goal.

Every goal needs a plan or system of how it will be achieved. Surround yourself with the right team or support system and brainstorm a plan to make your goal happen.

Your plan may change as you begin executing your goal and gaining more insight. But you need something to give you the initial sense of direction and focus of action. A bad plan is always better than no plan.

The design phase of your goal is entirely based on your strengths, opportunities, talents, resources, time etc. This is the time to be realistic and make a plan, map or framework that you can actually stick to.

Productivity tools help with this. But remember, the best productivity tool is the one you actually use. There are many tools and systems that help you in this phase, just choose the one you can stick to.

And no, you don’t need to wake up at 5am everyday to achieve your goals. You don’t need to sleep 4 hours a night. You don’t need to imitate habits of successful people. We all have our ways of operating and what works for us.

Your goal either needs to be able to fit into your existing design or you need to design a system that allows you to accomplish it.

Knowing when to quit should be built into your design.

You should also design ways to measure your progress and evaluate your performance as you go.

Tools/ Systems that help with the design of your goal

Task Management/Project Management tools(I personally use Notion to design and manage most of my projects and life)

Books (e.g Think and Grow Rich)

Strategic partnerships

GTD system

Formal education & online courses

Mental Models (like this one — 4D Goal Execution Framework)

A reward system

Business plan etc

This list is a lot less concrete than the previous list of resources. This is because the design you need is entirely dependent on the goal. There’s infinite amount of ways to make things happen.

Find a design/structure that works for you- A popular advice is to publicly talk about your goals, so others can hold you accountable. This actually doesn’t work for me. I find that I lose motivation when I tell people my goals before working on them.

Example of a design for a goal

Move to a new city:

  • I reached out to all the connections I had in Vancouver for advice and possible connections.
  • I co-ordinated with one of my friends to help me with apartment viewings, since I was still at the other end of Canada.
  • I created a Notion project to manage all aspects e.g when to start selling/give away everything in St John’s, the apartment hunt process, the required expenses, the phases for buying things for the apartment, a list of meet up groups/events to attend, when to transfer my bills etc.

Job Search:

  • I started taking on more responsibilities at work, to increase my experience and my pool of opportunities.
  • I started networking in various Slack groups focused on tech/startup professionals in Vancouver.
  • Based on a recommendation from a friend, I got the 2-hr job search book to help me understand the job search process better, as I was completely clueless.
  • I read countless articles and watched tons of YouTube videos.
  • I also created a system in Notion to manage this process and track my progress(shown below).
Tracking a job application in Notion
My design for my Job search in Notion

Savings:

  • I cut all non-essential subscriptions and expenses.
  • I completely stopped dining out.
  • I stopped drinking coffee, so I wouldn’t be tempted to stop at Tim Hortons on the way to work.
  • I paid myself a monthly allowance and saved everything else.
  • My girlfriend and I decided to skip all gifts for the year(except essentials)
  • I reduced my social visibility, as most outings cost money and to stop social comparison from creeping in.
  • Etc

Discipline

“Having a vision for what you want is not enough. Vision without execution is hallucination.”

This is your execution of the goals you set. Every goal requires a level of discipline to bring it to fruition

Discipline is knowing that you may need to say no to a lot of things along the way.

Your discipline depends on how strong your desire is. If your mind is all over the place, then it means you haven’t made a solid decision. Which makes it hard to maintain discipline.

If your framework(design) is hard to maintain or too complicated, then it’s hard to get into a routine.

Also, if your goal is unrealistic, then it’s also hard to maintain discipline.

Giving yourself regular rewards along the way help sustain discipline.

Tools/ Systems that help you discipline yourself

Overthinker’s Guide to Taking Action

Mastery

Extreme Ownership

Deep Work

Power of Habit

Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World

Atomic Habits (Highy recommended)

Eat The Frog

Checklist Manifesto

Example of executing on a goal

To stay disciplined and execute on my goals, this was my discipline system.

Move to a new city

  • I constantly checked my Notion board to determine my next course of action each day. And I made sure that I executed each one, regardless of my mood.
  • I didn’t tell anyone what my plans were until just a month away, so I wouldn’t be talked out of doing it.
  • I constantly referred back to my pros vs cons list when I started re-evaluating my decision.

Job search:

  • I stuck to an aggressive routine of applying for 20 jobs each day, personalizing each cover letter.
  • I followed up on every single company that had engaged directly with me, if I didn’t hear back within a week.
  • I evaluated every touch point with the companies, to see what I could have improved. Then I applied that improvement to the following interviews.

Savings:

  • I stuck to my budget even when it meant friends calling me cheap and my car needed to be replaced.
  • I rewarded myself with a take-out per month or on date nights(using my self-imposed allowance)
  • I wrote down a list of things I would buy once I was able to spend, to keep myself motivated.
  • I deleted all social media from my phone, so I was a bit harder to reach. Harder to reach = less chance to feel guilty for declining invitation to social activities.
  • I started drinking tea, to replace coffee(I’ll write about the effect of this experience eventually).

Some of these were a lot easier than others. E.g it only took 10 mins to switch over all my bills, while being anti-social and choosing to live poor took a lot of willpower.

The 4D Goal Execution Framework sometimes references itself

Like a strange loop, since mastering each element of this system will eventually become a goal in itself, you may have to refer back to the 44D Goal Execution Framework in order to master that element 🤯

Sound confusing? Here’s an example using Discipline:

  • Goal: Improve your discipline
  • First you need the desire to be disciplined(possibly triggered by a goal that you’re working on).
  • Then make a decision on what to sacrifice or do to be disciplined.
  • Finally, you need to design a system to maintaining that discipline. Then actually follow through on that design. Very meta!

Side Note: Knowing when to quit on your goal also takes some decision making skills and discipline.

Where the 4D Goal Execution Framework breaks down:

This only accounts for goals within your control. Factors like genetics, the country you were born in, luck, societal and environmental factors etc, can affect your ability to achieve your desired goals. This framework can not help with these (at least to my knowledge).

When you have occasional set-backs, obstacles or lucky breaks, re-evaluate your goal system, adjust the appropriate elements and try again.

The gist

This framework is not in opposition to other resources aimed towards helping you achieve your goals. This is just a way of bringing them all together in one simple repeatable framework.

  1. Generate a clear, strong desire for what you want.

Once you’re clear on your desire(s),

2. Decide between your options- backed by a combination of your gut-feelings, research, analysis, and evaluation.

3. Then Design a plan and system to execute your goal.

4. Finally, you need Discipline to follow through on that plan.

Every resource on achieving goals covers one or more of these elements.

We all have different areas we are naturally good at. Identify those that need improving, work on them and get the resources you need.

For me, I’m naturally ambitious, so desire is relatively easy for me. I’m also system-oriented, so coming up with a design is usually pretty easy as well. But I struggle with making decisions quickly(I second guess myself a lot), so I’ve started reading more books that help me with that aspect. And finally, like most people, the discipline to execute is still a challenge that I’m constantly learning and designing systems to improve(another example of the 4D Goal Execution Framework referencing itself 😉)

You don’t need any elaborate set up to use this framework. Not every goal needs to go that deep. If your goal is to be more social(desire), you simply need to decide on the type of people you want to socialize with(decision), figure out how to connect with these people and where they hang out(design), then follow through on your plan (discipline). That’s it.

Thanks for reading 🙋🏾‍♂ I’d appreciate your feedback on the following questions:

  • What’s missing in this system?
  • How will you apply it to your life ?
  • What seems the least clear, realistic, or feasible from your perspective?
  • What obstacles or challenges obstacles would you expect to encounter if you tried apply this framework ?

Other questions ? Let me know in the comments. Or feel free to reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

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Ola King

Building SEO products at Moz. 📚 Design, science, tech, systems, and people.