How to Begin

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

This book will help us set goals that truly matters in our life, “How to Begin:  Doing Something That Matters” by Michael Bungay Stanier.  Michael says, “A life well‐lived is full of worthy pursuits.”  A worthy pursuit is something you find thrilling (you’re eager to wake up each day to do it), important (it will benefit more than just yourself), and daunting (requires dedication).

Identify a worthy pursuit this year by considering pursuits in three possible areas: projects, patterns, and people.  Project pursuits focus on achieving something such as, “Create a podcast that gets 1,000 downloads in a month.”  Pattern pursuits involve new ways of being and behaving such as “Wake up at 6 AM every weekday to read and journal.”  People pursuits are about improving your interactions with people such as “Be a better friend”, “Be a more patient and playful parent”, or “Be a confident team leader.”

Think of a pursuit in one area you want to make a priority this year. Then transform it into a worthy pursuit by increasing the thrilling, important, and daunting score of it to at least a 6/7 (7/7 would be the perfect score).  (1)  Increase the “thrilling” score by thinking of how you can make your pursuit a fun intellectual challenge and a vehicle for becoming great at something you’ve always wanted to be good at.  The author of this book Michael for example decided to “create a new podcast” as his goal for the year.  But he did not find it thrilling.  So, he tweaked it a bit and decided to “create a new, professional-grade podcast” which means interviewing successful people about their careers since Mike is good at asking questions.  (2)  Increase the “daunting” score: draft different versions of your pursuit by tweaking the scope and timeline until you discover your “Goldilocks Zone” (something not too hard, but not too easy, so that it will not frustrate you because it is just too difficult or make you bored because there is no challenge) a goal within the realm of possibility that you can achieve on cruise control.  When Mike came up with “create a new, professional-grade podcast” goal, he increased the scope and timeline of it by deciding to “create a new, professional-grade podcast that is in the top 3 percent of all podcasts (scope) within 12 months (timeline)” to make it more daunting.  (3)  Increase the “importance” score: increasing your “importance” score may require you to increase the scale and reach of your pursuit or simply notice how your pursuit is indirectly improving people’s lives (like how embarking on a fitness pursuit such as jogging can increase your longevity or age and allow you to have a positive impact on your kids’ lives for longer).

When you increase your pursuit’s thrilling, daunting, and important scores to 6/7 or higher, it becomes a worthy pursuit and an irresistible quest you must begin. If not, add a killer action verb. Michael found that “Launch a podcast” motivated him far more than “Create a podcast.”

Here are seven great action verbs you can put at the start of your pursuit and make your pursuit irresistible: transform, launch, crush, devour, revive, supercharge, and kickstart.

Commit

After you’ve crafted a worthy and irresistible pursuit, you must commit. Commit to your pursuit by explicitly stating why the pursuit rewards far outweigh the status quo or the comfort zone rewards.  Every pursuit is like a trip through the galaxy on a rocket ship – you try to stay on course but are constantly pulled off course by the gravitational force of giant planets and stars. Those planets and stars represent the comforts you currently enjoy – status, authority, familiarity, and control.  Take two minutes to list the prizes you will enjoy if you do NOT start your worthy pursuit and maintain the status quo. Then list the rewards you expect to receive if you do pursue your worthy goal (such as better health, better relationships, more prestige, etc.)  Then take another two minutes to write out the punishments you’ll face if you maintain the status quo (boring life, no growth in relationships, health, prestige, etc.) and the potential punishments you’ll face if you pursue your worthy goal (temporary setback, frustration, and embarrassment).

If you can identify more worthy pursuit rewards than status quo rewards and fewer worthy pursuit punishments than status quo punishments, you are ready to begin your worthy pursuit and produce unstoppable momentum.