What's the next step?

I heard Len Schlesinger, a Harvard professor, give a lecture entitled Action Trumps Everything. He began by saying in order to get "there" you must be very familiar with "here" and name the problems. In order to name the problems you may find yourself looking for problems that you don't know exist. In those cases, Schlesinger says, "if you can't predict the future, create it."

In order to explain how to do that he used a metaphor of falling into a dark hole. In order to get out of that hole, action is required. Inside the hole, the darkness doesn't allow you to see anything. Just standing there, you cannot predict if you will get out of the hole or not. So, the future becomes clearer and is determined by your next step. Even then you don't know if you will make matters worse by taking the next step or if you will move closer toward the desired outcome. Nonetheless, action has to be taken.

In this case, the focus of your next step should not be, "is this the step that is going to get me out of the hole?" The question should be "is this the next step to getting me closer out of the hole?"

What prevents people from moving forward and taking the next step is the thought of failure, but a failed step is nothing more than an exercise in learning something few other people know.

Don't worry about what you want to do. What do you want to do next?