Decisive @ www.amazon.com
OK. You've read all of the posts, you've taken all of the test and you even followed along during the first fellowship. You are Mighty Purpose master and chances are you now have a few high potential purpose-projects to consider. But, how do you choose?
If you're anything like me, or many of the people profiled on this site, then these choices are never simple and in fact inspire a sticky web of angst and uncertainty. It's hard to "just take action", even 15 minutes of action, when you are stuck on a meaning-of-life-expressing choice.
The good news is that cutting through that web is easier than you may think . You just need to approach these decisions by asking a few questions.
If you're anything like me, or many of the people profiled on this site, then these choices are never simple and in fact inspire a sticky web of angst and uncertainty. It's hard to "just take action", even 15 minutes of action, when you are stuck on a meaning-of-life-expressing choice.
The good news is that cutting through that web is easier than you may think . You just need to approach these decisions by asking a few questions.
Ask Yourself These 3 Questions.
There are 3 questions that will make any major decision very clear.
Last month I updated you on the progress the Motivate (Beta) Fellows are making on their purpose-projects. Recall that Kyle's project inspired by the The Moth was about to die because one of the steps to making that happen was getting up front of a group of unfamiliar folks and telling a story. He wasn't all that comfortable with doing that, but he bit the bullet and told a story. It took a little while for him to get there and Kyle could have sped up the process if he had just asked himself these 3 questions:
I don't think Kyle used this exercise, but I think we can make reasonably accurate guesses as to what his answers would have been. For the first question, I bet he would have felt nervous and not all that great 10 minutes before getting on stage. If things started off poorly then he wouldn't feel good then about being there. Of course, if it started awesome then he would feel good. Most likely, he'd just feel nervous.
For the second question, in 10 months it probably wouldn't matter that much to him if it was a bad experience. He'd have an experience to learn from either way. But, since telling that story was an important step to advancing his purpose-project which should be a big positive. If someone in the audience recorded his storytelling and he gave an exceptional talk (i.e. exceptionally bad or exceptionally good), and it went viral on YouTube, then maybe that would inspire some stronger feelings almost 1 year later. But, how likely is that to happen?
If his feelings weren't that strong either way 10 months after the event, how strong will they be a decade later? He'd probably just remember he was nervous but he survived.
By asking these 3 questions we can easily see that the only cost to exploring a way to express his purpose was some jitters and very unlikely chance that someone makes him YouTube infamous. In fact it won't be that big of deal even a year from now. So why wouldn't he go tell a story as soon as he could?
Next time you have thorny decision to make, try these questions and revel how clear things become. And, then let me know how it worked out for you.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
P.S. - I didn't come up with this tool on my own. I most recently ran into this in Chip and Dan Heath's latest offering of wisdom - Decisive. In fact, this exercise is just the very top of the tip of an iceberg of ideas, all which are useful in purpose living. You should check it out...assuming you can follow the rules.
There are 3 questions that will make any major decision very clear.
- How will I feel about the choice 10 minutes after I make it?
- How will I feel about the choice 10 months after I make it?
- How will I feel about the choice 10 years after I make it?
Last month I updated you on the progress the Motivate (Beta) Fellows are making on their purpose-projects. Recall that Kyle's project inspired by the The Moth was about to die because one of the steps to making that happen was getting up front of a group of unfamiliar folks and telling a story. He wasn't all that comfortable with doing that, but he bit the bullet and told a story. It took a little while for him to get there and Kyle could have sped up the process if he had just asked himself these 3 questions:
- How will I feel about telling the story 10 minutes before I go on stage, or even 10 minutes into telling the story?
- How will I feel about telling the story 10 months from now?
- How will I fell about telling the story 10 years from now?
I don't think Kyle used this exercise, but I think we can make reasonably accurate guesses as to what his answers would have been. For the first question, I bet he would have felt nervous and not all that great 10 minutes before getting on stage. If things started off poorly then he wouldn't feel good then about being there. Of course, if it started awesome then he would feel good. Most likely, he'd just feel nervous.
For the second question, in 10 months it probably wouldn't matter that much to him if it was a bad experience. He'd have an experience to learn from either way. But, since telling that story was an important step to advancing his purpose-project which should be a big positive. If someone in the audience recorded his storytelling and he gave an exceptional talk (i.e. exceptionally bad or exceptionally good), and it went viral on YouTube, then maybe that would inspire some stronger feelings almost 1 year later. But, how likely is that to happen?
If his feelings weren't that strong either way 10 months after the event, how strong will they be a decade later? He'd probably just remember he was nervous but he survived.
By asking these 3 questions we can easily see that the only cost to exploring a way to express his purpose was some jitters and very unlikely chance that someone makes him YouTube infamous. In fact it won't be that big of deal even a year from now. So why wouldn't he go tell a story as soon as he could?
Next time you have thorny decision to make, try these questions and revel how clear things become. And, then let me know how it worked out for you.
Be well,
Sterling Lynk
P.S. - I didn't come up with this tool on my own. I most recently ran into this in Chip and Dan Heath's latest offering of wisdom - Decisive. In fact, this exercise is just the very top of the tip of an iceberg of ideas, all which are useful in purpose living. You should check it out...assuming you can follow the rules.
[Image: Amazon.com]