When making a decision, it is best to choose a strategy to help you make the decision. Last month I mentioned a pros/cons list. Another strategy is backwards design. Backwards design is knowing where you want to go, or what you want to accomplish and planning from that ending to where you are now.
First you have to know where you want to go. What do you want to do with your life? Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? Use this as your starting point. From there, work your way backwards. If say, you wanted to be a musician recording albums. You would generally need to garner relationships and network with all the right people. And you would need to be a decent artist. If you were going to get in the circles you need to for networking, to be recognized, you need to perform, possibly virtually, but live and in-person has a big impact and makes connections with others easier because you have direct contact with other people in the music business. In order to perform, you need songs to play. Will you write your own or work with someone else? Before you can write music, you might need to learn how to read music (although not everyone does) and learn how to play your instrument. That means lessons- whether self-taught or getting them from someone else.
Backwards design tells you the steps you need to take in order to get where you want to go. Once you design in backward, walk it through forward and see what steps or decisions may be missing and fill in those holes.
Knowing your end goal helps you choose the best means to get there.
Comments