Blind action

A favorite quote of mine is: education without action is wasted, action without education is dangerous.

While at a glance this stacks up I believe there is a balance which can be struct between the two. Let me use buying a car as an example for this post. So let’s make this quote practical.

Now you may be an analytical who will spend months researching the best car but until you start test driving cars your homework is wasted. Or you might be a driver who puts zero homework in and you just end up buying a car which you can’t afford and doesn’t suit your needs.

That is the premise of the quote above, you will get burnt if you just hap hazzardly chase a project but on the other side if you only do homework you will never achieve anything. I propose there is a middle ground where we can play.

Set the goal

Seems obvious but be sure you are outlining a clear goal which is SMART.

Know your limits

First and foremost if you want an on the job learning experience you first need to learn your limits. For the example above, it would be signing a finance agreement, if you look at property it would be signing the first OTP. So when looking at a project from a perspective where you might not know the best way forward start by finding that “point of no return” I did this when I was a pilot, at what point am I committed to the flight / landing when can I no longer turn back?

Plan your failure

Simple question: “How will this fail” you can call this planing for risk but I like this wording better. Layout all the ways and resaons this project will fail or will result in a less than ideal result. For the example this will be a failure if my girlfriend hates the car I choose. This question will force you to plan the process to resolve the problem.

Break it down

Some things will at the surface have one stage, like buying a car, but if you take the time to phase your approach then you build in points where you can assess the situation and redirect. When looking at our car example, maybe the first stage is research, second stage test driving, third stage testing affordability, Forth stage narrow down options, reasses, finally we buy. By staging your excecution you have a built in opportunity to look back to see if you are still on track and see if the current path puts you on track to achieve your goal. We also have a chance to make sure we get the spouse buy-in on the new car.

Sense Check

Seek external feedback. Always look to test your assumptions and theories, nothing will give you a better indication of how you are doing like asking someone who knows the process better than you or even just someone who thinks differently. For the example talk to your mechanic, ask them what they think about the top 3 cars you are considering. Talk to a colleague about how you are weighing up between the Honda or Hyundai, maybe they will ask you a question about the cars you never though of which makes the one option better than the other. Critically this stage is about making sure you are considering as many possible pitfalls as possible.

Embrace the unknown

During the process you will come up of problems and questions you didn’t expect. DO NOT PANIC. This is what this processed is designed for, you could never consider all the unknowns in the process of achieving the goal. You will find something you didn’t consider. Take your time to study and solve the problems or answer the question. For our example maybe you didn’t think to ask if your golf clubs with fit in the new car but you were borrowing the demo car for the weekend and now this is problem you didn’t anticipate.

Follow the process

Seems daft that I need to say this but we all get emotionally invested in things which should be analytical. Remind yourself of the systems you laid out and why you laid them out. There is likely risk in your process but you highlighted that, we know that you will be confident in your process because we got external input on the problem. We know there were unforeseen issues we got the answers to.

Ideally I’ve given you a blueprint to go an apply to the goal you want to achieve.

What is your goal?