Escaping the How Hole

Have you ever stopped pursuing a goal not because you lacked thedesire, but because you couldn’t see how to make it happen?

Too often we allow our current understanding to define our future possibilities. When we become obsessed with figuring out exactly how something will happen, we often talk ourselves out of pursuing what might have been possible.

When I was young, I thought almost anything was possible.

I learned to walk by getting up, falling down, and trying again. I didn’t decide walking wasn’t for me because I fell a few times. I simply put one foot in front of the other until I figured it out.

At six years old, I wanted to understand how a lawn mower worked. Unfortunately, my method of research involved sticking my hand underneath one. Let’s just say that was a painful lesson and not a strategy I would recommend. But it does make a point.

As children, we often believe first and figure things out later.

Somewhere along the way, many of us lose that mindset.

As I got older, I became more constrained by fear and limiting beliefs. I wanted to see the finish line before I started the race. I wanted to understand every step before taking the first one.

Most recently, I wanted to remove the carpeting from the staircase in our entryway and refinish the stairs underneath. The project sat untouched for nearly two years.

Why?

Because I didn’t know how.

My daughter, however, approached things differently. She decided to refinish the back staircase. She didn’t know how to do it either, but she wasn’t nearly as constrained by limiting beliefs. She had a vision for what the staircase could become and simply got started.

She learned as she went.

Watching her gave me the confidence to tackle the front staircase myself. I learned one step at a time, solved problems as they appeared, and two weeks later the project was complete.

The result turned out beautifully.

The funny thing is that the knowledge I thought I needed before starting only appeared after I had already begun.

That is how most worthwhile goals work.

As leaders, we often get trapped in what I call the “how hole.”

We become so focused on figuring out exactly how something will happen that we lose sight of why it matters in the first place.

We limit our aspirations because we cannot see every step to the finish line.

We hesitate.

We delay.

Sometimes we abandon the dream altogether.

But vision is not about knowing the how.

Vision is driven by the why.

It paints a picture of what could be.

The how often becomes clearer only after we commit and begin moving forward.

Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t say we needed to see the entire staircase.

He said we needed to take the first step.

Where might you be allowing uncertainty to limit your potential?

What dream or goal have you placed on hold because you don’t know exactly how to achieve it?

What first step could you take today?

CHALLENGE
Identify one goal, project, or dream that you’ve been postponing because you don’t have all the answers.
Then take the first step.
Not the entire staircase.
Just the next step.
Because the path often becomes visible only after we start walking it.