There’s a spectrum of mindsets about how best to drive projects toward fruition. On one end of the spectrum, people hold prudent attitudes like these:
- I need to be an expert and know everything about this,
- I need to prepare and do all the necessary homework,
- I need to find all the flaws, solve all the problems, and achieve perfection,
- I need to find – or wait for – just the right time to begin.
On the other end of the spectrum, people hold audacious attitudes like these:
- It’s a great idea, everyone will love it,
- Let’s give it a try and let’s see how well it works,
- As we go forward, we can fix any problems that show up,
- Every minute we wait is time lost forever.
I don’t know where you operate along this spectrum, but based on the statistics of how most people make their choices and take their chances, I’m guessing the set of prudent attitudes resonates with you a little more than it should.
So today I am advising you to consciously move a step or two closer to the audacious side of the spectrum.
Why? Because prudence is somewhat overrated. Sure, a certain amount of careful thought and preparation is sensible. You don’t want to dive into strange waters – literally or metaphorically – until you know they’re reasonably safe. But way too often, prudence is only part of the reason for a hesitancy to act.
Hesitancy also comes from fear: fear of making mistakes, of getting harmed, of looking foolish, of losing self-respect, of outright failure, and worse.
If you let your fears combine with prudence to dominate your choices and actions, you’re almost guaranteed to leave untapped and unrealized a good portion of your potential productivity and success.
Here, then, are some guidelines for moving slightly closer to the audacious side of the spectrum:
Step One: Size Up the Problem or Opportunity
It’s not overly prudent to look before you leap. So before you take any meaningful action toward completing a challenging task, project, or goal, it’s sensible to evaluate:
- The skills, resources, tools, and attributes needed for success,
- The time required to take needed actions and obtain desired results,
- The potential risks and costs, as well as the likely rewards, and
- How well the rewards measure up against the risks and costs.
If the situation doesn’t pencil out favorably, let it go. But if it looks manageable, and you’re OK with the risk/reward ratio, you can move on to….
Step Two: Look at What Others Have Done
There are very few things that have never been done before, and most of those can be broken down into smaller components that are reasonably similar to tasks, projects, and goals at least a few people have tried. As a result, there’s a very great chance you can learn from others who have already tried something more or less similar to what you’re thinking of doing.
Take note of these previous experiences, and try to determine:
- What went right,
- What went wrong,
- What mistakes were made,
- What external conditions contributed to or took away from the results,
- What you can do to improve on all this.
Once you have actively and meticulously learned from relevant past experiences, you may feel a little more audacious about trying to implement your own most cherished ideas.
Step Three: Take Your Best Shot
After a judicious amount of sizing up and learning from past experiences, it’s a good idea simply to take your best shot.
After all, the history of successes includes very few perfect first tries. Most times, people make a fairly rough first attempt, and learn enough from that experience to fine tune and improve their further efforts. It’s not necessary to hit the bullseye immediately. Success also comes from multiple efforts showing steady improvement.
Remember what hockey great Wayne Gretsky famously advises: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Learn and Grow
If you redefine success as simply surviving to try again, you give yourself a much better chance of eventually hitting your target.
Making a somewhat audacious attempt, taking properly-thought-out action, and moving forward into uncertainty can all be powerful learning experiences in both your work and your life. Even if they don’t bring you all the success you desire, they allow you to benefit from immediate feedback. And you can later use that feedback to make better, stronger, more accurate attempts at completing your desired task, project, or goal.
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