I’ve been thinking a lot about planning and how I spend my time recently.

This Marginalian article about Oliver Burkeman's Antidote jumped out at me today as I was doing some research about Basecamp’s six-week cycles. Uncertainty and the unknown can be stressful and paralyzing when you’re planning anything.

Burkeman describes how that discomfort can lead to poor decisions, offering a challenging self-reflection activity:

"Consider any significant decision you’ve ever taken that you subsequently came to regret… If it felt like a difficult decision at the time, then it’s likely that, prior to taking it, you felt the gut-knotting ache of uncertainty; afterwards, having made a decision, did those feelings subside? If so, this points to the troubling possibility that your primary motivation in taking the decision wasn’t any rational consideration of its rightness for you, but simply the urgent need to get rid of your feelings of uncertainty."

Later, Maria Popova highlights psychologist Saras Sarasvathy's research on entrepreneurs:

"Her model distinguishes between “causally-minded” people, who take a specific goal and apply to it all available tools in order to achieve it. “Effectually-minded” people, on the other hand, consider the tools and materials at their disposal, but use them as a springboard for envisioning what new directions might be possible."

I do this in the kitchen at home – we call it "Don't ask, just eat it." It's making do with what we have in front of us and creating something satisfying out of it. Business planning like this seems to go against conventional business advice, but upon reflection, it is central to my previous successes. When I get bogged down, it's usually because I've made some decision out of a fear of uncertainty instead of intention or possibility.

As Sarasvathy puts it, "Start with your means. Don’t wait for the perfect opportunity. Start taking action, based on what you have readily available: what you are, what you know and who you know."

This is what I'm doing with Ethical Methods. It's scary, but leaning into that fear is something I'm learning to do. In a recent Job Search Council meeting, someone was discussing the stress and fear of interviewing. I helped reframe the typical "what's the worst that could happen?" question our brain presents us with. Instead, "what's the best that could happen?"

Read the full article: Stop Overplanning: The Psychology of Why Excessive Goal-Setting Limits Our Happiness and Success

Friendly Warning: as with most Marginalian posts, beware the additional links you'll open and dive deeper. I love it, but it can eat up the hours. 😊

Is fear of uncertainty driving your decisions right now? Whether you want to think it through together or explore working with Ethical Methods, I'm happy to discuss what’s the best that could happen.

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