CREATE Goals are the Courageous, Realistic, Envisioned, Aligned, Testable, and End-Dated micro-level operational goals within Independent Integration Systems Engineering (XSE) through which Desired Results (777) are translated into actionable systems-engineering objectives. Developed within the third sub-element of Take Time, CREATE Goals specify what the System of Interest will deliberately work to accomplish in order to move from its established current state and Trajectory toward its Desired Results. Each CREATE Goal should be aligned with and traceable to the Desired Results it supports and provides an operational basis for deriving Gateway Guarding specifications—the Inputs and Outputs that will be deliberately chosen, encouraged, restricted, rejected, or forbidden during system operation.

Within XSE, CREATE Goals function as:

• micro-level operational planning structures;
• translations of Desired Results into actionable objectives;
• Trajectory-calibration structures;
• implementation-oriented systems requirements;
• alignment mechanisms between intended results and actual operation;
• reference conditions for subsequent evaluation;
• and the operational basis for deriving relevant Gateway Guarding specifications.

CREATE Goals occupy a specific position within the larger XSE architecture:

Current Reality & Trajectory
↓
Desired Results (777)
↓
CREATE Goals
↓
Gateway Guarding Specifications
↓
System Operation / Build Strength
↓
Target Tracking & Data Collection
↓
Analysis, Feedback & Recalibration

They therefore provide a critical bridge between determining where the system should go and engineering what the system will actually do to get there.

CREATE Goals Within Take Time

CREATE Goals are developed within the first Element of Luxxacation:

TAKE TIME

Take Time is organized around three primary sub-elements:

1. Assess Current System State and Trajectory

Establish the current reality of the System of Interest and examine where the system appears to be heading if its present configuration, habits, conditions, and patterns continue without meaningful course correction.

This includes appropriate data collection and examination of relevant:

• system states;
• Inputs and Outputs;
• feedback;
• patterns;
• strengths and weaknesses;
• constraints;
• resources;
• environmental conditions;
• dependencies;
• and other evidence relevant to understanding actual system operation.

This first sub-element asks:

Where is the system now, and where is it heading if nothing changes?

2. Pinpoint Desired Results (777)

Determine and record the results toward which the system should intentionally be directed.

Within XSE, Desired Results (777) establish desired future conditions across progressively expanding time horizons:

• 7 hours
• 7 days
• 7 weeks
• 7 months
• 7 years
• 77 years

The purpose of these horizons is not to imply certainty about the future. Rather, they encourage the Systems Engineer to consider immediate, intermediate, long-range, and enduring results together so that short-term decisions can be evaluated in relation to broader system Trajectory.

This second sub-element asks:

Where should the system go?

3. Determine How the System Will Achieve Its Desired Results

The third sub-element moves from desired outcomes into operational planning.

It asks:

How are we going to get the system there?

CREATE Goals are micro-elements within this third sub-element of Take Time.

They translate the Desired Results into tangible objectives that can direct actual system operation.

The hierarchy is therefore:

TAKE TIME

1. Assess Current System State & Trajectory
Where are we, and where are we heading?

↓

2. Pinpoint Desired Results (777)
Where should we go?

↓

3. Determine How to Get There
How will we achieve those Desired Results?

Within Sub-Element Three:

CREATE Goals
What specific objectives will move us toward those Results?

↓

Gateway Guarding
Which Inputs and Outputs should be deliberately chosen or forbidden to support those objectives?

↓

Target Tracking Configuration
What should be repeatedly observed to determine whether the intended configuration is actually being maintained?

CREATE Goals are therefore not an additional top-level sub-element of Take Time. They are micro-level goal structures developed within its third sub-element.

Desired Results (777) and CREATE Goals

Desired Results and CREATE Goals perform related but distinctly different functions.

Desired Results (777) establish the intended results.

CREATE Goals establish actionable objectives for achieving those results.

A Desired Result may describe a future condition that the system seeks several weeks, months, or years from the present. That Result does not necessarily tell the system what it needs to accomplish today or this week.

CREATE Goals provide that additional operational resolution.

Every CREATE Goal should therefore be reasonably aligned with and traceable to one or more Desired Results.

For each CREATE Goal, ask:

Which Desired Result does this goal support?

How is accomplishing this goal expected to contribute to that Desired Result?

Does pursuing this goal remain coherent with relevant Desired Results across other 777 horizons?

If a meaningful relationship cannot be established, the proposed goal should be reconsidered.

This protects against activity without meaningful advancement.

A system can successfully complete numerous tasks while still failing to move toward—or even moving away from—its intended Desired Results.

The 777 architecture establishes the larger destination structure.

CREATE Goals translate that structure into operational objectives.

The CREATE Framework

Each CREATE Goal should be:

Together, these six characteristics help ensure that CREATE Goals are not merely aspirations but operationally meaningful systems-engineering objectives.

Courageous

Within XSE, Courageous means that a CREATE Goal supports appropriate advancement beyond unnecessary avoidance, fear, resistance, or stagnation when such advancement is necessary to move the system toward its Desired Results.

Courageous does not mean reckless, impulsive, unnecessarily dangerous, or disproportionate.

Rather, the goal should involve a reasoned willingness to confront appropriate difficulty, uncertainty, effort, discomfort, or resistance when required for meaningful advancement.

Ask:

Does this objective require appropriate advancement beyond something presently limiting the system?

Courage should remain proportionate to actual:

• risks;
• responsibilities;
• constraints;
• capabilities;
• and operating conditions.

CREATE therefore concerns reasoned courage in service of advancement, not risk for its own sake.

Realistic

Realistic means that the CREATE Goal is grounded in the established current reality of the System of Interest.

This directly connects CREATE Goals to the first sub-element of Take Time.

The goal should account for relevant:

• capabilities;
• limitations;
• constraints;
• responsibilities;
• resources;
• dependencies;
• time;
• environment;
• actual system state;
• and life-cycle position.

Realistic does not mean easy, conservative, or unambitious.

It means that the objective has been engineered with sufficient regard for reality that meaningful implementation is reasonably possible.

Ask:

Given what our Reality Check has established about this system, is this objective reasonably implementable?

Envisioned

Envisioned means that the intended objective and resulting future condition are represented with sufficient clarity that the Systems Engineer can meaningfully understand what is being pursued before implementation begins.

The emphasis is not merely upon visualization.

Envisioning establishes directional and operational clarity.

Ask:

• What exactly are we trying to accomplish?
• What should be different if this goal succeeds?
• What would successful implementation look like?
• How does this objective contribute to its associated Desired Result?

An Envisioned goal provides a sufficiently clear representation of the intended future condition to guide subsequent planning and action.

Aligned

Aligned means that the CREATE Goal is demonstrably coherent with the larger system architecture.

Most importantly:

Every CREATE Goal should be aligned with the applicable Desired Results (777).

The goal should additionally be evaluated in relation to:

• Integrity;
• the XSE Axioms;
• other CREATE Goals;
• responsibilities;
• system constraints;
• relevant dependencies;
• the larger System of Interest;
• and whole-system Trajectory.

Alignment helps prevent local optimization at the expense of the larger system.

A goal can be completed successfully while nevertheless contributing to an undesirable overall Trajectory.

Within XSE, accomplishing the objective is therefore not sufficient by itself.

The objective should contribute coherently to the Desired Results it is intended to support.

Testable

Testable means that a CREATE Goal is formulated with sufficient specificity that its implementation, progress, relevant effects, and eventual achievement can be evaluated through appropriate observable evidence.

Testability connects planning to subsequent feedback.

Ask:

• What evidence would indicate that this goal is being implemented?
• What would indicate progress?
• What would indicate successful completion?
• What would indicate deviation or failure?
• What relevant conditions should be observed?
• What Inputs and Outputs may need monitoring?
• What foreseeable obstacles could interfere with achievement?
• What feedback would indicate that recalibration is necessary?

A Testable CREATE Goal does not necessarily require a single numerical metric.

Depending upon the System of Interest, appropriate evidence may be:

• quantitative;
• qualitative;
• behavioral;
• observational;
• milestone-based;
• condition-based;
• performance-based;
• or otherwise appropriate to the system.

Testing considerations should also include foreseeable obstacles, vulnerabilities, contingencies, and operating conditions so that the goal can later be evaluated against real-world performance.

Thus:

Testable asks: How will we know?

End-Dated

End-Dated means that the CREATE Goal has an appropriate temporal boundary or formal reassessment point.

Depending upon the nature of the objective, this may include:

• a completion date;
• an operating period;
• milestone dates;
• a scheduled review;
• or another meaningful temporal reference.

Not every systems objective has a natural point of permanent completion. Some involve maintaining an operating condition or continuing a desirable practice.

In those cases, End-Dated may establish a formal reassessment point rather than an artificial completion date.

This prevents goals from continuing indefinitely without evaluation.

Ask:

By when should this objective be accomplished, or when will it be formally reassessed?

Thus:

Testable = How will we know?

End-Dated = By when will we accomplish or reassess it?

From CREATE Goals to Gateway Guarding

Once CREATE Goals have been established, XSE increases the operational resolution of the plan.

The next question becomes:

Given these goals, what should be allowed into and produced by the system—and what should be restricted, rejected, or prevented?

CREATE Goals therefore provide the operational basis for deriving Gateway Guarding specifications.

For applicable human systems, Gateway Guarding is considered across the:

Mind Gateway

Body Gateway

Spirit Gateway

For each relevant Gateway, deliberately identify:

YES Input

What will be deliberately sought, admitted, or chosen because it supports the CREATE Goals and Desired Results?

YES Output

What will be deliberately done, expressed, produced, or enacted because it supports the CREATE Goals and Desired Results?

NO Input

What will be deliberately rejected, avoided, restricted, or forbidden because it is expected to interfere with the CREATE Goals or Desired Results?

NO Output

What will be deliberately prevented, discontinued, restrained, or forbidden because it would interfere with the intended objectives or Trajectory?

For applicable human systems, the planning process should identify at least one YES Input, one YES Output, one NO Input, and one NO Output for each of the Mind, Body, and Spirit Gateways, with additional specifications developed as appropriate.

This produces the operational progression:

Desired Result
↓
CREATE Goal
↓
Gateway Requirements
↓
YES Inputs | YES Outputs | NO Inputs | NO Outputs

Gateway Guarding is therefore not arbitrarily attached to CREATE Goals. Its specifications are deliberately derived by considering what system exchanges will support or interfere with achieving them.

For non-human systems, the same underlying principle can be adapted to the actual interfaces, boundaries, information flows, materials, energy, commands, transactions, resources, or other Inputs and Outputs relevant to the System of Interest.

From Gateway Guarding to Target Tracking

Planning still does not establish that the system will actually operate according to the intended configuration.

That requires feedback.

Relevant CREATE Goals and Gateway Guarding specifications therefore inform the configuration of Target Tracking.

Target Tracking asks:

Is the system actually doing what Take Time determined it should do?

For applicable human systems, this can include recurring observation of the:

Mind | Body | Spirit | Target

at strategically positioned Watches.

Target Tracking records operational evidence concerning whether the system remains On Target, begins to deviate and successfully resets, remains off Target, or enters more substantial deviation.

This establishes a feedback connection between planning and actual operation.

CREATE Goals and Build Strength

CREATE Goals are engineered during Take Time and executed predominantly during Build Strength.

This distinction is fundamental.

During Take Time:

The system determines what it intends to accomplish and how it intends to operate.

During Build Strength:

The system actually attempts to carry out that configuration.

CREATE Goals therefore cross the planning-to-operation interface.

They originate as micro-elements of the third sub-element of Take Time and subsequently guide action, practice, persistence, regulation, and implementation during Build Strength.

Target Tracking Watches may temporarily return the system to Take Time functions during Build Strength in order to observe, record, compare, and, where appropriate, correct course.

CREATE Goals Within the Feedback Architecture

The complete relationship can be represented as:

TAKE TIME

1. Assess Current System State & Trajectory

Where are we now, and where are we heading if nothing changes?

↓

2. Pinpoint Desired Results (777)

Where should we go across 7 hours, 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 months, 7 years, and 77 years?

↓

3. Determine How to Get There

How will we achieve those Desired Results?

Within this third sub-element:

CREATE Goals
What specific operational objectives will move us there?

↓

Gateway Guarding
What Inputs and Outputs should be deliberately chosen or forbidden?

↓

Target Tracking Configuration
What should be observed during operation to determine whether the system remains on course?

↓

BUILD STRENGTH

Implement → Guard → Act → Persist → Track → Correct

↓

Operational Data & Feedback

↓

TAKE TIME

Analyze → Evaluate → Recalibrate → Resynthesize

↓

RISE ABOVE

Recommit → Seek Better Sources & Resources → Strengthen Future Capability

↓

Next Iteration

This creates a recursive connection between Desired Results, operational planning, actual behavior, evidence, and subsequent systems engineering.

CREATE Goals as Micro-Level Systems-Engineering Structures

CREATE Goals should therefore not be understood merely as motivational affirmations, productivity techniques, or isolated goal-setting exercises.

Within XSE, they are micro-level systems-engineering structures used to translate higher-level Desired Results into actionable and evaluable operational objectives.

They provide the level of resolution necessary to move from:

“This is the result we desire.”

to:

“This is what the system will deliberately work to accomplish next.”

And from there:

“These are the Inputs and Outputs we will deliberately choose or forbid.”

followed by:

“This is what we will observe to determine what actually happened.”

The hierarchy can therefore be expressed succinctly as:

777 provides direction.

CREATE provides operational objectives.

Gateway Guarding provides Input/Output specifications.

Build Strength provides implementation.

Target Tracking provides recurring operational evidence.

Analysis interprets the evidence.

XESAS Synthesis uses relevant findings to help configure subsequent whole-system operation.

Recursive Evaluation and Recalibration

CREATE Goals should not be assumed to remain optimal merely because they were carefully engineered.

Actual system operation produces new evidence.

Target Tracking, other forms of data collection, changing system conditions, feedback, newly identified constraints, new Sources and Resources, and unexpected effects may indicate that a CREATE Goal should be:

• maintained;
• strengthened;
• modified;
• divided into smaller objectives;
• reprioritized;
• completed;
• replaced;
• or discontinued.

CREATE Goals therefore participate in XSE’s recursive systems-engineering process:

Take Time → Build Strength → Rise Above → Take Time Again

Each new Reality Check can reconsider:

Current State & Trajectory → Desired Results → CREATE Goals → Gateway Guarding → Target Tracking

so that the next configuration is informed by what the system has actually experienced.

Investigative and Scope Considerations

CREATE Goals are systems-engineering planning structures. They do not guarantee outcomes, eliminate uncertainty, establish that every Desired Result is attainable, or replace the judgment of appropriately qualified professionals where specialized expertise is required.

For human applications, CREATE Goals are intended as educational, coaching, and systems-development tools. They are not medical or psychological diagnosis or treatment and should not substitute for appropriate licensed professional services.

Concise Definition

CREATE Goals are XSE’s Courageous, Realistic, Envisioned, Aligned, Testable, and End-Dated micro-level operational goals developed within the third sub-element of Take Time to translate Desired Results (777)—established across 7 hours, 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 months, 7 years, and 77 years—into actionable and evaluable systems-engineering objectives. Each CREATE Goal should be aligned with and traceable to the Desired Results it supports and provides an operational basis for deriving Gateway Guarding specifications by identifying Inputs and Outputs that should be deliberately chosen, encouraged, restricted, rejected, or forbidden. CREATE Goals are engineered during Take Time, implemented predominantly through Build Strength, observed through Target Tracking and other appropriate data collection, and recursively evaluated and recalibrated as new feedback becomes available.