Project Alchemy Part Seven: Where Did You Go?

Project Alchemy Part Seven: Where Did You Go?

It's been said that between take off and landing, airline pilots are off course over 90% of the time.  Along the route, their job is not so much staying on course, but to make an ongoing series of micro corrections that will bring them back in line to land at the precise point they want to.  

When I first heard this, I was amazed.  Not shocked, but definitely, wonderfully amazed. It just goes to show you how the law of inertia comes into play with everything.  Once something is set in motion, it stays in motion.  It is simply up to us to act as the guide ... and to keep our wits and intuitions about us while doing so.  When our passion and intentions collide, it is imperative to set our ideas in motion and trust, trust, trust - while following our inner guidance.

Imagine what it would be like if we didn’t make any 'course corrections' along the way.  What if we deviated a even just a few degrees upon take off of our project, lost sight and allowed ourselves to get distracted, and continued on the wrong course until the 'flight' was over?

After all, it's just a few degrees … right?  How big a difference could it make?  Well, anyone who has studied physics can tell you that a few degrees' change over time can result in a huge deviation at the endpoint of our journey.  The longer the flight, the greater the deviation.

Let's transfer this analogy to your project.  Get off track at the beginning of your project, and you may never recover your course.  Meanwhile, if you're nearly there, a few wrong turns won’t do much damage.

Review your 'failure' through this lens.  Consider the critical inflection points we identified in the previous section.  At what point in the trajectory of your project did they occur?  At take off, the landing, or somewhere in between?  And when you got off course, which direction did you head?  

Maybe you were brought to a standstill, dead in the water.  Maybe you actually went backwards.  Perhaps you got pulled to one side or another, distracted by another project or issue.  Speaking from experience, this last point has been a thorn in my side with many projects!

After you know which direction you went, the next logical question is why you strayed. What was it that grabbed your attention?  Was it an emergency in another area of your business or project, or another attractive project that promised more return on investment?  

Or maybe you got scared and stopped the project, and took a few steps backward, convinced that you needed more research and information before you could proceed.

Identifying where you went off track, and why you did, are critical pieces of information to obtain as you move forward into your other projects and ventures.

Want to stick with me on this series and carry on?  Let's journey on together into Part Eight; Rewrite Your Story.

Want to review the origins of this Project Alchemy series?  Click over to the Introduction and Parts One and Two.