Next Step
It occurred to me that thinking has gotten a bad rap, mainly from me, so I want to go on record and give thinking its proper due.
There is a big difference between run-of-the-mill thinking (talking to yourself inside your head) and thinking things through.
Most of the thinking we do is without objective. It’s just blathering commentary without purpose and it’s exceedingly repetitive.
Thinking things through has you methodically consider steps that need to be taken in order to accomplish something. It has a purpose. “What’s my next step?”is the operative question you want to be asking during purposeful thinking.
We’ve all been in situations where we haven’t thought things through. We blew ourselves up like Wile E. Coyote because we didn’t consider a step that needed to be taken in our haste to get to our objective.
This is quite prevalent when driving a highway route that’s unfamiliar to us. If you are following a printed Google map or even if you have GPS, you’ll want to know the next step. This is so you can prepare for it and not wait for it to “all of a sudden” come upon you and have to make a tricky maneuver to take the next turn.
“What’s my next step?” is the first question you should be asking yourself once you’ve completed the step before it. Reminds me of a story . . .
I’ve known media consultant, Holland Cooke
for over 30 years. He has lots of pithy sayings and has a boatload of useful suggestions when it comes to preparing. One of his suggestions is to rewrite your resume the day you get a new job. Most of us are caught up in the euphoria of the new gig and that has us put off the next step. Chances are, there’s going to be another job in your future, so get in the proper lane now so you can make your turn with as little last minute maneuvering as possible.
Are you just thinking or are you thinking things through? If you’re not thinking “What’s my next step?”, you’re walking around with gum on your shoe.
All the best,
John
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