Over the years I have developed quite an eclectic set of skills and knowledge: juggling, guitar playing, cartooning, portraiture, sailing, humorous writing, hip-hop dancing, model-making, public speaking, classic car restoration and on and on. I know that a lot of people shy away from starting and engaging in new pursuits. They often give a response after seeing something impressive of “Oh, I could never do that!” and then they support this conclusion with various reasons and excuses.

At an earlier point in my life, I came to the conclusion that if someone, somewhere on the planet has done something then if I can replicate what they do then I should achieve at least some level of similar results - unless I have physical limits in my body that make that impossible. This conclusion allowed me to start looking for possibilities whereas I might otherwise have dismissed the notion of doing difficult things out of hand. I still had the problem of seeing the huge gap between me, with no ability, and the person I wished to emulate, with mastery of their field. That led to feeling overwhelmed and concluding that the notion was impossible. Fortunately, I went on to realize that this master must also have started out with no ability and that an incremental progression of increasing ability took that person from zero to hero. From that I derived the two questions that have allowed me to get started in a new sphere of activity and develop satisfactory levels of ability.

1) How can I go from nothing to something? This question gets me to search for the first possible step and if I take it then I have begun.
2) What’s next? Once I have made and accomplished the first step I search for the next possible step and take it. I then repeat the question.

This is a very effective method for self-directed learning and experimentation. It keeps you focused on the here and now and what is possible given your current capabilities and limitations. It allows you to progress based upon your own personal evolution rather than trying to fit a format or a schedule. Consequently it doesn’t fit well with highly structured pinnacle goal-setting methods. I don’t advocate those methods anyway. I think that is far better to develop competencies first, out of personal curiosity and pragmatic abilities, and then decide how to make use of them (which is very easy once you have them and can depend upon them) rather than basing plans and goals upon great uncertainties and capabilities that you don’t have. That’s the great disadvantage of pinnacle goal-setting on things that you cannot currently do as it designs in difficulty, uncertainty and consequently stress and high failure rates.

So, what’s next for you?

Related articles:

The Journey

Pinnacle Goal-Setting Doesn’t Work

Why ‘Why?’ Often Doesn’t Work

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[Photo by jurvetson]