So you’ve made the decision and now you’re out on your own.
And normally you crack on but for some reason, your activities just ain’t happening.
Now you have to think about yourself and what you want.
There’s no military agenda to consider. No promotion board, dream assignment or Book of Reference to guide you.
Before you could follow a path that had been walked by many. You knew the score and what to do.
Now, you are on a road that seems foggy and you can barely see 3 ft in front of you.
It’s uncertain.
And seemingly, the only option is to hide and do nothing.
“How are you complicit in creating the conditions you say you don’t want?“
So here’s the fact.
If you do nothing, spoiler alert – nothing changes.
The braver option, and one that pays in the long run, is to step into that fog and see where it leads, encountering the obstacles as you go.
And with good planning, when we have a clear sense of where we’re going, we can be flexible in how we get there.
Because now more than ever, leadership is vital and it’s not an activity exclusively reserved for appointed leaders or managers.
Leadership starts with everyone.
It starts with you.
I self-published two books. One is a fiction novel and the other came first. It was a practice book.
I was stuck worrying about how I was going to format and get a book onto Kindle and what all that entailed.
It was distracting me from editing the novel which was more important.
So I gathered together a collection of reflections from while I was writing the novel, churned it through the formatting software and learned how to set things up on Kindle.
It was a brilliant learning exercise that freed up my brain bandwidth and momentum to continue with the novel edits.
This should indicate two things.
First – I write about the writing. Sounds odd but it really works.
Going back over these reflections I was able to see when I was fatigued and the patterns of activity I went through as I was writing.
It was really interesting and gave me an insight into my process, that otherwise would have gone undocumented and unnoticed.
And second – I experiment and learn by doing.
Very comfortable in my discomfort with trying new things, testing things out, seeking the adjustments needed and noticing the change, and the impact.
Re-thinking how and why we do things is the path to progress.
Transitioning from the military and creating new goals and plans requires a shift in thinking, decision-making, and, most of all, in choosing to do things for you.
Without support, feedback and accountability, this process can fail to even begin. The blinkers go on, we hide and we procrastinate.
Discover your own potential.
Try setting a timer for 60 seconds to brainstorm. No judgement. No opinions.
Bullet point all the stuff you’ve done that you can think of.
One idea might lead to another.
Then you can cherry-pick your favourites and dig into them in more detail.
This is a handy workaround if you find yourself being your own worst obstacle.
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Abbie Pierce 