To answer the question "What’s the best way to get the answer?" requires action. There’s no way to think it into being. And action has magic in it.
Try it with your own project. Set yourself a tight deadline (pull in a friend to lower the danger level and keep you honest, and maybe to help). Then create enough of your idea so you can show it to some people.
Will that give you a surefire answer? No, but it will get your project out of the ditch and back on the highway, where you can get started. And that’s what you were after, remember?
That’s the whole secret. That’s all you need to go from planning to getting started toward anything you want to do. Let’s try a quick run-through, shall we?
- Pick one "practice" goal right this minute.
- Create a Backward Planning Flowchart and put a tentative target date for completion of the steps over each circle.
- Check to see if you have any "holes" in the flowchart (missing steps or lack of information or fears that might stop you).
- If so, do your Reality Research and go get some answers.
- Get a buddy or other Support Team to check on your Real Deadlines regularly.
- Take the first step.
You might be surprised at what comes of this little test run: You could actually turn one of your dreams into reality, just like that. Whether or not that happens, I can guarantee that going after a practice goal by taking real steps will change the way you look at action forever. And it will change more than just your viewpoint—it will change you, too. You’ll become too self-conscious to let yourself get away with your "But What If…" games without going after real answers, of course. But trying out this process will forever expose the two mysteries that have so often stopped you in the past: (1) why it’s so hard to get started, and (2) how to get started anyway.
You can do some Reality Research on the missing steps, lack of information or fears that might stop you from your Backwards Planning Flowchart in Exercise 1, or you can start over with another goal. In a new comment on this page, tell us about your experience with Reality Research. Did it get you started? After you share your experience, read the rest of the comments and reply to a few. (If you have been skipping this part of the book club experience, now would be a great time to give it a try. It’s important.)
Please be sure to subscribe to future comments on this exercise or to check back here on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning for new ones.
Use the Next link (up above the title) to continue on to What I Learned from Chapter 7 after you are done adding your comments.