Hi Reader,

Happy Tuesday! This week's post will help you find ways to move your most important work forward. Go make a difference!

Blunder, Bet and Boast Your Way to Significant Achievements

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You want to make a difference, do something significant, but you feel that you mostly do the same old, same old.

Maybe you have a book in you. Or an idea to start a ministry in your community. Or a way to help others improve their lives. Or you want to start a business.

But you’re going nowhere.

It’s human nature to want to know all the steps before getting started. It’s natural to want to have it all figured out before making the big move. And that’s what will keep you stuck.

The most important thing is to get started. You just need to try something. It doesn't have to be fully-baked or perfect.

Perfect is the enemy of done.

Here are three strategies for getting started.

Blunder

Bonnie Blodgett calls herself the Blundering Gardener. She uses the term blunder because she will start a project without knowing how to do it. It requires learning along the way, which will inevitably lead to some blundering.

When you take on something new it will take longer than you expect. You’ll encounter obstacles. You’ll get stuck. But that’s part of the learning curve. Achievement nearly always includes learning. In the real world, that means blundering.

If you wait to become an expert at something, you’ll never get started. If you start something and learn along the way, then you’ll get something done. You won’t become an expert, at least not right away, but you WILL get better as you go. Blunder.

Bet

In his book, Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries, Peter Sims makes the case that experimentation is the key to finding big ideas. This sounds obvious when I say it this way because when we think of scientific discoveries, we automatically think of experimentation. But how often do you think that way in ministry? Or in business?

If you’ve ever had to make a proposal to a church council or a board of directors, you’ve likely been pressed to have thought through every task and contingency. This takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. The reality is all that planning can’t prevent unforeseen challenges.

Sims argues that instead of having everything planned out in advance, you try “little bets” toward what you think might be a positive outcome. He cites high achievers such as comedian Chris Rock, Steve Jobs, Pixar Films and the Army Chief of Strategic Plans, as well as Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Edison, as having achieved great things through little bets.

If you’ve got an idea, don’t wait until you have the entire plan to get started, otherwise you never will. Instead run a pilot project and see what happens. Make adjustments and do it again. You’ll be surprised how quickly you can get to something significant.

Boast

Boast is not the correct term, but I love to alliterate.

What I mean is to put yourself out there. Tell others what you are doing. Not to boast, but to speak your effort into the world. When you do this, you are much more likely to follow through.

When I started writing my first book, the only person who knew about it was my wife. But I read that it helped to tell people, so I started sharing this when appropriate. It’s scary, but it works.

If you keep something to yourself, it’s no big deal if you don’t follow through. Although you’ll probably feel bad about it. When you share with others, you not only feel accountable to something beyond yourself, you also enlist the support and prayers of those who care about you. People will be pulling for you to succeed.

Which brings me to a final word about the life of faith. My experience is that when I feel God leading me to do something, I don’t get a clear picture. It’s usually a nudge or a glimpse of what’s possible. Then I know it’s time to take a small action. Sometimes it’s a bigger idea, but I have no idea how to get there. I know I’ll blunder. To me, that’s how faith works. If I knew everything at the outset, it wouldn’t be faith. The prayers of others make it more likely that I’ll discern what step, what action, God wants me to take next. It’s an exciting way to live.

Recommendations

​Fredkin’s Paradox of Similar Options from Admired Leadership. If you suffer from FOBO (fear of better options), then this is a must read. Knowing when to make a decision will leave you more time and energy to focus on your most important work.

​Find a way - by Cate Hall - Useful Fictions You're going to face challenges. The question is, are you willing to put yourself out there or will you play it safe? This deep dive will provide inspiration to give it your best.

Podcast

Episode 401 of The Non-Anxious Leader Podcast, How Murray Bowen Reworked His Primary Triangle – Part 3 of 3, is now available.

That's it for this week. Thanks for reading.

Peace,

Jack

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