Day 24: Take The Next Step Only
If I have no idea what I am doing, then the next step will involve learning. If I am on familiar ground, then I will prioritise tasks based on urgency and impact.
Listen to the audio, then do the journaling activity below.
These are the actions I bring into play when fulfilling a personal mission:
- I choose an idea that lights me up. Achieving your personal mission should feel effortless, even though a lot of work could be involved.
- I map out broad steps to get there. No details, just a mud map of what the path might look like. I might generate 2 or 3 mud maps if distinctly different paths are available.
- I choose the easiest possible step to take. At the beginning of the journey, that could simply be to get curious about something and start to explore it. Ask questions, see connections, learn and revisit past experiences.
I’ll play and draft something, like a potter at her wheel or an artist with her sketch pad. I don’t know what the final picture will look like but doing rough sketches, help that story to emerge.
Eventually, the way ahead becomes crystal clear to me. That’s when I lock and load and push hard to reach my goal.
There is one thing you must remember in all of this – none of us owns a crystal ball. We can’t predict what the future will be like. We try to predict it because it helps the security guard in our brain to feel safe. A predictable future means we are not heading off into the unknown, blind to the risks involved.
Let me say it again. We can’t predict the future.
I never know what is actually going to work. It’s only through doing stuff that the answer gets revealed.
I take the next step only, and I trust my logical brain to tell me what that is. If I have no idea what I am doing, then the next step will involve learning. If I am on familiar ground, then I will prioritise tasks based on urgency and impact.
Today’s Journaling Prompt
Look at your mud map, and pick one thing to do, and plan how you will get it done. Don’t stall worrying if it is the right thing. Just do it.