Move Beyond “Could” Thinking to “Must-Do” Thinking

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Move Beyond “Could” Thinking to “Must-Do” Thinking

By Terry Brock For DSound and Steemit

I’ve written about the “Dangers of Could” where I shared some of the real problems in not being focused. That led to some asking about what we should do to select those projects where we must focus.

How do we select the “must-do” projects? What criteria needs to be deployed?

Successful people move from “could” thinking (all the projects and tasks you could do) to selecting which fall into your “must do” category. First, we have to realize that we all have limited time, money, and energy (TME). You can’t do everything. You can’t read every email. You can’t spend hours with everyone who is remotely interested in you.

You need to develop strong filters. Here are some steps that I’ve found help successful people develop filters to make the best decisions:

Step 1 - Acknowledge reality. You can’t do everything. We’ll believe that intellectually, but quickly go into trying to do too much. As you accept reality you move in a different direction. You become careful where you invest your TME.

Step 2 - Do lots of small, controlled tests. There’s no way that any one person can know exactly what the market wants always. One of the beauties of the free enterprise system is that trillions of decisions are made by millions of people and no one person, or group of people, have all the answers. Schedule several small, controlled, low-cost tests that enable you to gain valuable information. You can increase the budget and the TME available for each task as you see success.

Step 3 - Think crowd funding and crowd sourcing. I recently had an interview with Slava Rubin, one of the cofounders and CEO of Indigogo (indiegogo.com) . [bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/growth-strategies/2016/02/what-works-today-in-crowdfunding.html] Today's crowd funding goes way beyond money alone. Today, smart companies are relying on the wisdom of crowds, as James Surowiecki talked about in his book of the same name. amazon.com/Wisdom-Crowds-James-Surowiecki/dp/0385721706/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460029483&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Wisdom+of+Crowds The famous Japanese phrase comes to play here that is used often in Silicon Valley, "None of us is as smart as all of us." Tap into people who put real money, real time, and real energy into your project. Don't rely on those who only acknowledge verbally that they like it and would want to buy. Let your decision making be based at a higher level.

Step 4 - Pay Attention to Buyers. I read a great book a while back entitled so good they can't ignore you by Cal Newport. In this excellent book he talks about the importance of focusing on those projects that people are willing to pay for. In business, we have to go on more than just positive talk. We have to go on serious dollars in the bank kind of money. This is where the benefit of small projects come to mind. Track how people buy small versions of your new idea before you invest large amounts of money into a bigger scaled project. If people are really serious, they will pay for your idea.

Step 5 - Always have a mental budget to look for new. Budget mental time to think about and explore new options. This means read from a variety of sources that can feed your mind with good ideas. Read outside your comfort zone. If you're used to reading mainly business documents, mix things up with some reading about areas that you normally don't read. Find creativity in the new. Read what your competitors are not reading. If you budget time for this you open up a new world of opportunities.

Step 6 - Watch for feedback. Track the analytics. Don't just go on what your gut feeling says. In the real world we need more than gut feelings. Do the tough work of studying analytics. Look at the numbers and observe what they say. A good way to do this is through your blogs, your podcast, and your videos. Notice which posts generate more positive response. This is today's smart -– and inexpensive -– way of doing market research

Step 7 - Never stop testing. Today's smart entrepreneurs and successful business leaders are always testing. In a market that is changing with hyper-speed, don't get lazy and expect that the future will be just like the past. What worked before might not — and probably will not — work for the future. Adapt. Adjust. Continually learn. These are the ingredients of the secret sauce that allow successful people to move ahead.

Yes, we need to move beyond "could" thinking. Move to the next level with these seven steps.

What do you think? I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Thank you for joining me.

Terry

TerryBrock.com
@terrybrock - Steemit

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