You have a goal. Now you think and plan how to achieve it. Most commonly, you try and build a linear progression from one step to the next, and trust that it will get you to the end goal you seek.
Of course, you already know from past experiences, that things will change. You understand that the initial plan is going to be modified by how things go and that life will always throw new stuff at you.
Some assumptions you’ve made will be proven wrong. New knowledge and insights will help change this liner course of action, so you can still stay on track to achieving your goal.
It’s a continuous cycle of iterations. You plan, you do, you change the plan based on results.
However, there is one thing you can do even before you start, and every time you modify your plan.
For each step in your project, ask yourself: “Let’s assume this did not work as planned. What caused it to fail?”
The answers will help you in two ways:
- You’ll see the weak points in your plan.
- When you reach that point, and it does fail, you’ll better know how to proceed. (Even if the failure was not what you predicted it would be.)