It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we need to take action in order to change our circumstances. But, before we can take action, we must first develop a plan of action. The plan of action is a list of actions, that we will undertake in order to change our circumstances. Then, we must test the plan by changing the circumstances.
In order to change our circumstances, we need to understand our circumstances. So, in order to get things done, we need to develop the ability to think like a person who has to change something. We need a certain amount of “insight” that comes from our gut. This is something our brains do very well, so we should be able to develop this skill.
In the game, you will need to use your imagination to come up with a plan of action. There will be a certain amount of research that will go into the process of gathering information. There will be a certain amount of trial and error. You’ll need to test your ideas on people. There will be a certain amount of risk involved. You will need to make a choice. You will need to make a risk assessment. You will need to act and react.
We have to be honest here. Developing new processes is just as hard as developing new ideas. In fact, the process of developing new ideas is harder than developing new processes. We need to build a new way of thinking and trying to create new ideas. The process of being able to think about something new is very different than being able to think about something old.
It’s easy to think you can develop new processes and new ideas when you have the luxury of time and/or the luxury of a team of smart people who can make it happen. But being able to think through the process itself is another thing. I’ve been talking to people throughout the development process who have developed processes with a specific set of goals and have run into a wall.
One of the best examples was when I was learning how to program. A friend of mine had a computer science degree and decided to take a job as an engineer. He was in a position to do great things, but he wanted to try to change people’s lives as he had done by learning to program. But he found that he didn’t know how to think about a problem or make a change.
Its like learning to play a instrument, you do it the best you can, and then you find out you can’t play it on the instrument anymore.
In the same way, you learn to code, you learn to think, and you learn to learn. We all learn best when we have the freedom to be our own best selves. When you are learning something new, it is your job to decide what to use to learn it. You have to be willing to take chances and make mistakes. When you are learning a programming language, you have to figure out what makes you learn best.
A lot of our actions in life have some element of trial and error. We try things and we get discouraged and we don’t try anymore. This sometimes leads to us getting stuck in a loop of repetitive actions that aren’t helping us learn. Learning is a process of experimenting and trying something a million different ways until you figure out what works for you.
The problem is, we tend to be very good at the things we are good at. People who are good at computers tend to be good at everything; people who are good at chess tend to be good with other people; and people who are good at math tend to be good at everything. When we get stuck in a loop of repetitive actions to be repeated until we figure out what works, it hurts our learning because it is a kind of negative feedback loop.