March 11, 2015, TGIW: Unhumping Hump Day……Play Game

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” –Martin Luther King

There’s an oft-quoted phrase used in many personal development realms: “Ready! Fire! Aim!” It’s meant to shake up the old paradigm of having all your ducks in a row before you act.

Many of us can logically understand, in today’s quick-obsolescence, immediate-upload/update world, why it is smart to at least get started. We would love to just get out there and take a chance, “go for it”, and give it a try. It’s too bad that our psyches often fight us all the way.

Most of us grew up in an educational system that awarded us for getting the right answer vs. thinking creatively or taking a risk. Therefore, our internal wiring is built around trying to have all the potential variables and risks worked out before we go live with anything: an idea, a new career direction, a dream project.

“Don’t move forward until it’s safe” is what the inner voice says…as if there will one day be “safety.”

In the software development world, the terms and methods of “agile” and “scrum” are used to move projects forward one bit at a time, using short, immediate feedback and upgrade cycles, vs. the old days when you waited a year or so for a Version 2.0 to come out.

This model might serve us well in our own ramping up for anything beyond mediocrity and complacency.

I support clients through PlayGame CoachingTM in the outlandish idea of getting onto the playing field and beginning to play FIRST — and THEN working out the kinks from what we learn in the process — it’s fascinating to see the sense of freedom that comes over people when letting go of that old, ducks-in-a-row wiring.

Many sensible folks might warn you and me to spend more time on the drawing board or countless hours in planning mode with our new body of work, our bold business initiative, or our inspired change for self betterment. Time to choose: old wiring, or re-wiring?

Got Fire?

“A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan executed next week.” –General George Patton