How To Complete Any Project Even When You Don’t Know How
I’m sure at some point in your life you’ve heard this paradoxical question, “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Because you need a chicken to lay an egg, and chickens come from eggs, you can easily find yourself in an intractable loop trying to come up with an answer to that one.
Solving problems in business can also feel like a chicken or egg question sometimes. When creating something new or trying to resolve a business problem, the questions that repeatedly cycle through most entrepreneurs heads are – what should I do? And what should I do first?
Even though I like to think of myself as a problem solver, I still fall into that loop. I have trouble figuring out all the steps I need to execute on a vision that I have for my business. And inevitably, in planning, I miss some of the details necessary to make that vision a reality.
For example, if I was building a house, I know that at some point, I would need to pour the foundation, build the frame, and add the roof, walls, and plumbing. But it’s the tiny details between pouring the foundation and installing the pipes that would have me puzzled. I’d never feel 100% sure that I was doing all the things I needed to do to keep the house from collapsing.
These “I’m going to miss something” and” “I don’t know how to do it” mindsets used to cause some major procrastination for me. Because I didn’t know how to do something, I wouldn’t do anything. Instead, I’d spend hours researching techniques and taking courses on how other people got their work done. Of course, research and learning are essential. But they are not substitutes for actually doing the thing you set out to do.
Thankfully, I’ve conquered some (but not all) of my “I don’t know how to do it” demons using a 4 step process. So if you are stuck, here’s what you can do too:
Step 1: Change Your Thoughts First
I learned the concept of changing your thoughts to get things done from the book Self Coaching 101 by Brooke Castillo. And those concepts were reinforced in this podcast episode by Kara Loewentheil.
When we decide to take on something new, there are usually feelings of anxiety and fear that come along with it. The primitive part of our brain reads this anxiety and fear as a threat to our personal safety. Because the sole purpose of our primitive brain is to protect us from danger, it devises ways to keep us away from those anxious feelings. So thoughts like, “I don’t know how” cause us to procrastinate and avoid those feelings altogether.
By working on our mindset, we can begin to identify the thoughts that cause us anxiety and fear and actively change them. By doing this, we convince our brains that we are no longer in danger and can bypass thoughts that keep us stuck and unable to reach our goal.
Step 2: Systemize The Learning Process
In his book, The First 20 Hours: How to Learn Anything Fast Josh Kaufman described a process called he calls rapid skill acquisition. Rapid skill acquisition helps readers get from “I don’t know how” to “I know enough to keep moving forward” quickly. And the process has five major steps:
- choose the skill you want to develop,
- deconstruct the skill into the smallest possible sub-skills,
- learn enough about the sub-skills to practice and self-correct,
- remove any barriers to practicing, and
- consistently practice the most essential sub-skills for 20 hours.
By creating a system around the process of learning something new, you ‘won’t get stuck in an endless research cycle. Instead, you’ll teach yourself enough to get started, and then use the process of practicing and refining to complete your project and reach your goal.
Step 3: Find A Mentor
Doing anything new can often feel extremely vulnerable and frustrating. So you need a go-to person who can answer questions, keep you accountable, and give feedback regularly to keep you moving forward. So finding a mentor is a crucial part of figuring out how to do anything.
To find a mentor, talk with business colleagues, friends, family and reach out to people on LinkedIn. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you find someone who is willing and able to help.
Step 4: Invest In Great Resources and Tools
In the past, I’ve made the mistake of trying to “save money” by not investing in the resources and tools I needed to get things done. Doing things that way always turned out to be a mistake. I’m not saying you need to break the bank here. But by not investing in resources upfront, you are probably taking the long route toward reaching your goal. If you know you need specific tools and resources to complete a project, make the decision to invest in the best resources you can find as soon as you are able. You’ll move past any “I don’t know how” mindsets pretty quickly if you have the right tools to support your efforts.
How do you get things done even when you don’t know how? I’d love to learn your process for figuring out how to reach your goals too. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.