Goals and problems are actually different lenses on the same thing, though both words are used ambiguously. A goal is usually a desired outcome. A problem is every aspect of a start state that precludes the desired outcome.
Problems must be solved in order for goals to be achieved. In some related literature, some authors refer to “projects” as a related concept to goals and tasks. In the life plan, there is no real need for projects as a separate idea. A project is the implementation of the solution to a problem, or the tasks you will perform to achieve all causes required to obtain the effect described by the goal.
All goals require you to recognize the start state, even if you don’t think of it formally as a problem, because you can’t enumerate the steps to accomplish a goal without knowing your start state. Recall that beliefs are reputed mappings of cause and effect. Your beliefs will provide you the connection between your goals and your tasks by suggesting what needs to be done to obtain the outcomes you seek. Your goal describes the effect you seek, and the tasks you will generate are the causes in that particular belief that you have not yet fulfilled. In order to know the causes you have not yet fulfilled, you need to know the ones you have.
Sometimes, you might not already have a belief that provides the outcome you seek through your goal. In this case, the first and most important task in your goal will be to research whether anyone else has been successful in finding what you seek, and to investigate how they obtained it. If you can’t find anyone who has, you’ll have to design your own experiments to try to find the way to what you seek. In almost every case, you can readily follow the example of someone who has successfully solved the problem you face. Devising a novel solution will likely be many more times more difficult and less likely to be successful compared to finding and following the example of someone who already figured it out. To save time, research and exclude every unsuccessful attempt made by others to obtain what you seek.
You can be confident in your efficacy in solving problems when you are engaged in intentional improvement, you recognize problems early, your situation is obviously improving over time, difficult things get easier, and impossible things become possible.