Comments on: Three Questions Seekers Must Ask Themselves

By: by Tim

by Tim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:35:08 +0000

Thanks for the gentle quibble, GR—love the “things she can do today” perspective.

Sara, thanks for the kind words. It’s as you say: first-timers tend to blunder ahead, the wise reality-test their ideas with the experienced.

This morning GRS covers similar territory: Mike is preparing to quit his job and start a retail store (a situation very similar to Joan’s fictive restaurant). Post and comments well worth reading…

By: Sara

Sara — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:11:32 +0000

Beautifully simple. I kept wanting to say, “Yes! That’s *the* most essential question!” after each point, only to be presented with an equally critical question.

I think too many people skip the step where they ask people smarter than themselves about whether they have the right idea. It’s much easier to just go for it, assuming that we have all the answers, but the results this approach yields are far less satisfying. Loved the analysis.

By: Gentle Reader

Gentle Reader — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:14:36 +0000

I think this is a nicely articulated series of steps for achieving a complex goal or goals, but I would quibble with one piece: deciding the steps. I think it is much easier to make sure you’ve got the pieces in place to achieve the goal (and make it look manageable) if you work backwards rather than forwards. For example, if Joan knows she wants to have a restaurant, and today she doesn’t have one, it can look very vague and NOT simple to figure how to get one.

Instead, if she starts her planning from “I will open the doors to my new restaurant. What do I have to do the day before THAT to make sure it happens?” she is more likely to get a fully fleshed out plan – and most importantly, a series of actions she can do TODAY.