Leaping or Lagging?

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Leaping is my theme for 2016.

It was partially inspired by Tara Sophia Mohr from her book Playing Big.

What’s a leap?

It’s something that “has you playing bigger right now, is simple, and can be completed in one to two weeks, gets your adrenaline flowing, and puts you in contact with the people/audience/customers/stakeholders you want to reach through your playing bigger.”

So when I finished my April adventure yesterday, I wrote a blog post about what I’ve learned from blogging every day for the last month. I knew I needed to share it more broadly than my usual tweet, sometimes supplemented by a status update in LinkedIn.

Yet I didn’t want to do it. The tweet was easier. Been there, done that. The LinkedUp update was fine. Then it was time to try out InstaQuote for an Instagram post of the post’s image and title. Okay. Easy enough.

The bar got harder with Facebook. I’ve only shared a blog post among friends once before. I don’t want to be “that person” in social media. The one that people get tired of hearing from and quietly put on mute. To spare your feelings and theirs.

And then I remembered a great post about in Inc. by Chris Winfield. In writing about how to stop procrastination, he got to the root cause. Why do we procrastinate?

Because “we believe that taking action will cause us a certain amount of pain.

Yep. I was trying to avoid pain. Of potential ridicule. Of being ignored.

Chris recommends a powerful way to move beyond it. Ask yourself, “What can you do in the next three minutes that will move something forward? What’s one small action that you can take right now?”

It’s very similar to David Allen‘s system for getting things done. It’s all about clarity on the next action.

For me, it was a Facebook post. What’s the next action for you?

What’s the Next Step?

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Ever feel overwhelmed by a big project? How to scope it? Where to begin?

This is a great time to take a page from David Allen‘s playbook. The creator of Getting Things Done advises to note the next action that needs to be taken.

Because life really is a series of small steps that add up to big things. And somehow, that first action builds momentum for the next action, and the next and so on.

It reminds me of visiting a prospective middle school with my son. The science teacher wrote an acronym on the board: WTDWYDKWTD.

He asked who could tell us what it meant.

Huh?

That’s what he said he was teaching his students to do.

Unfortunately, or perhaps not surprisingly, no hands went up in response.

It translated into “What To Do When You Don’t Know What To Do.”

What a brilliant concept. Because how many of us know exactly what to do, every moment of every day?

Often, though, we know a lot more than we give ourselves credit for. A few questions can help.

  • What is known about the situation?
  • What is the goal or the problem that needs to be solved?
  • Can that be related to a similar scenario?
  • What is unknown that would be helpful to know? How could that information be obtained?
  • Could a small pilot be conducted to test a theory at how to proceed?
  • Has someone faced a similar situation who could give helpful insight?
  • What is the worst thing that could happen? How could that be prevented or mitigated?
  • What is the best outcome? How could you make that happen?