The "Do" Point

Most people have aspirations. They want to be heard. They want to take on a challenging problem. They want to do something important--something that matters. I'm not being critical here, but most people don't make much headway on these goals. Why not? There are many reasons, but one of the biggest is that aspirations are daunting. And that keeps us from even starting.

You know what I'm talking about. You can hear that little voice in your head saying "How am I ever going to accomplish that?"

I'm going to let you in on a secret. The people who actually DO accomplish their far-reaching goals feel exactly the same way when they start. For example, Chet Wayland and Phil Dickerson, the two EPA managers who brought air quality information out of the backroom and put it under everyone's noses in USA Today and on The Weather Channel, remember feeling distinctly uncertain. They had applied for a federal grant and had promised results, but, in the beginning, they didn't have a clear idea how they were going to meet their promises. [See my book, Spiral Up, AMACOM 2008.]

What did they do? They didn't let their big idea get in the way. They just did what they could do. And that took them forward. It's what I call the "do" point. Instead of waiting until they had pulled together a grand plan, they did the simple things that were right in front of them.

They started by working with their colleagues in the New England states, who had already begun to pull the air quality information together in an online map. They reasoned that, even if that's all they accomplished, it would be a step in the right direction.

There's a lot more to the story, but they ended up doing us all quite a service. All 50 US states and all 10 provinces in Canada now pool their air quality information and next day forecasts on a near-real time basis. You can see it for yourself if you have young children who should be playing indoors on a bad air day.

Did I mention they had no budget and no staff to work on this when they started?

What's the lesson? Have big aspirations, but don't let them get in the way. Go to the "do" point. Find one simple thing you can do that will take you forward. Do it.


© Jane Linder 2007. All rights reserved.