Got the up to seven key measurable outcomes? That’s the Part A of the Results section. Good. Here’s what’s next.
Prioritize them. That’s right. Erase the little numbers to the left of each key results and order them from number 1 in priority down to number 7. I know it’s hard, but no whining. You are not paying me enough for me to listen to it. And, in due time, you will see why this prioritization can be very important.
Okay, on to Part B of the Results section. You see, we’ve got one more thing to do before we leave section 1, Results. If you creative types felt like I squashed both the creativity and the daisy out of your Volkswagen Beetle by throwing the cold water of key outcomes in your face, here’s your chance to change your belief that I am the planning Nazi.
Those key results you outlined, you could call that Part A: Key Outcomes.
Part B is The One Big Project. Here, you ask a simple question, which is:
What is the single most important project I could accomplish over the next six months?
What is the first thing that comes up? I’d make a note of it. But I’d also let this question work on you a day or two. (It may or may not have any direct correlation to the key outcomes in Part A.)
You will notice I said “the one big project.” Projects have a beginning and an end. What constitutes a big project? You—and/or life—is/are not quite the same afterwards. Maybe it is something that has eluded you in the past. Maybe it is something that has just cropped up. Maybe it came up just now. The One Big Project is something that will stretch you in your achievement of it, that will grow you as a person, may affect life itself as a result, and can be accomplished in six months.
Whoa. What’s this about six months? First, you heard me right, I said six months. If I said 12, you’d spend probably 9-11 of ‘em procrastinating. So we are moving the deadline up. Go head, post to Twitter or Facebook that I am being totally unrealistic, that your creative process takes longer, and that you have now confirmed that I actually am the planning Nazi.
After you’ve managed to git yer
knickers out of yer twist, then I have a recommendation. Step over it. I am
unconcerned about your comfort. I am highly concerned about how action will
unlock your potential and convert a well-intentioned dreamer into a man or
woman of action. There’s work to do. And, contrary to popular belief, it is not
time that is a-wastin’. It is your potential that is.
Here’s my advice: Chunk it down. If you’ve got some big grandiose scheme that is going to take years to accomplish (or maybe you know you never will but are going to give it the good fight anyway), chunk it down. What can you accomplish over the next six months?
Here’s my advice: Make it definitive. This is especially important if you are chunking it down. Set an end state that is observable with the human eyes. Here’s one example. Maybe you will be starting a new business and for whatever reason it is not possible to start it in six months and have money flowing in. Well, what can you do? Can you have a business plan done and put to the test by having shopped it at three banks for financing? That’s observable, right?
Or maybe you want to take your honey to Italy this year, but you can’t do it by then. But can you have 70% of the money saved and the reservations made by then?
That’s called chunking it down, and it can be very effective. Especially for those of us who fear success more than failure. Just succeed partially by getting yourself part-way there. J Then the view around the next bend isn’t so scary.
Here’s my advice: Don’t underestimate what you can accomplish in six months. If you cut out the numerous ways you waste time and energy—what warrior’s call eliminating unnecessary acts, and/or if you block a day here or there to truly focus on doing what needs to be done, you’d be amazed at what you actually can accomplish.
Here’s my advice: Don’t pick a project that is in fact a delaying tactic. I see a lot of people pick One Big Project is actually a delaying tactic, getting them ready to actually do the real thing. You might as well call a spade a shovel and change the name from The One Big Project to The One Big Self Betrayal.
My goodness, this one is a doozy, isn’t it? What I mean here is that many of us have a knack for tremendously overengineering things, which is basically a delay tactic—fixin’-to-get-ready-to-commence-to-get-ready-to-act. Here’s what I mean by that.
Let’s say you are going to redesign your business, changing its focus (as I am doing myself). Let’s say you think you need marketing materials, some good business cards and a nice web site to hawk yourself and this new thingy (that’s Sarah Palin talk) you want to provide to your clients. Now, that alone could take you six months. Right?
But let’s say you have a network of 10 people who really care about you and your gifts a lot, about another 20 who care about you and support you generally, and another 50 who you’ve lost touch with but seemed to have a liking for you and what you did for them in the past.
How many weeks would it take you to make 80 outreach calls, explaining what you are intending to do, and asking for feedback on the concept. And then, in that call or as a follow-up, asking whether they know anyone ready for that thingy, or whether they know anyone that might know someone ready for that thingy.
Are ya trackin’ with me? Under option A—write marketing materials, get business cards and set up web site—at the end of six months you could be fully prepared to start selling what you think other people want.
Or, under option B—network, test and refine the idea through conversations, and find potential beta-clients—at the end of six months, you could have a refined business idea, and, if it truly is the cat’s pajamas you think it is, your business may be so full of clients that you don’t need marketing materials, glossy business cards and a web site. In fact, if your thingy is very hot and people get great results from it, you may need to start asking people to not tell others about it. Howz that?
This whole diatribe brings us squarely back to the self-deception I posted about in our early introduction to this planning series. Most of us, as supremely confident and competent as we appear externally, believe we need a whole host of props from outside of us before we jump on to the stage of life.
Jumping on the stage of life is one thing if the point is to play a guitar. Then, it is important to learn to play guitar first.
However, most of us are not learning a new art. Projects that are preparation are often tantamount to delay and therefore self deception in the many other cases where we simply need to speak our heart and apply the God-given gifts and talents we’ve already accumulated and been given, and are simply applying them in a new, more creative way.
[end of motivational speech]
So get crackin’ on defining The One Big Project. Here’s the litmus test:
1. Fear: it strikes fear in the fibers of your body, yet does not freeze you in fear.
2. Passion: it makes your
heart sing to think about getting it done, yet you are sober about it.
3. Time: it can be
accomplished in six months, or you can define some portion of it that can be.
Congratulations. You've defined the WHAT--the Results--the seven key outcomes and The One Big Project. That alone is quite a lot, and in short order we will move our focus, attention and intention from Section 1, Results, to Section 2, Initiatives. Take a breath, a pause, and reflect. Gather yourself around section 1, and imagine yourself six months from now, with that done. Who would you be? What would you then be capable of?Ponder on that, for that is where we are headed.
