I came across an exercise not that long ago that suggested that you figure out how you’ve answered or solved big questions in the past when you were happy with the result. Then you could apply that formula to new problems and at least have something of a road map to go by.

Hmmm, nothing like a little analysis of analysis for fun.  When I sat down to do it however, the tricky part was coming up with examples where I had thought it through and was truly satisfied with how things turned out.  Lesson 1 was realizing that all too often I’ve not used any kind of a process and grabbed onto the first thing that came along, sometimes with good results and sometimes not.  But two major purchasing decisions did fit the requirements; my car and my house, so I used those to figure out how I’d gotten there and sure enough I do have a relatively consistent process!

1. Identify the need  I’m ready to own my own home
2. I make a list, of course I’m a compulsive list maker so this makes sense. But in this case it’s divided into strict requirements, nice-to-have’s, and parameters. The house had to have a basement and be built before 1945, it would be nice to have a fire place, and it should be somewhere  quiet and safe.
   
3. Then I research and seek outside expertise  real estate listings to see where old houses are available, find an agent via referral, get pre-approved etc.
4. Followed by refining the lists in step #2 quiet and safe with the appropriate commute now equals somewhere in the Northwest neighborhood
5. Seize timing – this one is harder to predict but it means being really ready and committed; checking real-estate listings daily and making an offer when a house meets the criteria without contributing any new problems
6. Fulfill the need – it may seem self-evident but it closes the circle and allows my brain to stop thinking about the problem, stop checking listings and most importantly not going into the land of ‘might-have-been’ or ‘if-only-I-had’.

The challenge now is to get in the habit of using this process to develop satisfactory solutions for problems as they crop up. It doesn’t remove intuition, but rather includes it in a more structured format and keeps it from being confused with fear.

What are your steps?

Technorati Tags: achieving goals, challenges, intuition, self-improvement