FOUR QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DETERMINE IF SOMETHING IS WORTH DOING:
The Long Game is a great personal coaching book. It is an actionable antidote to the self-sabotaging urgency experienced by so many of us professionals.
I love checklists – they’re basic tools to help prevent mistakes and author Dorie Clark provides many checklists in this book, here are 4 questions that I have been using personally in my coaching to help think through requests, opportunities, and obligations:
1️⃣ WHAT IS THE TOTAL TIME COMMITMENT?
We all have a basic understanding of how long something will take, but our estimates might be very off. We might be quick to agree to present a free webinar because it is only one hour long but if you factor in the back and forth planning calls, creating slides or other materials, the run through, you are looking at three to four hours of work!
2️⃣ WHAT IS THE OPPORTUNITY COST?
The choice might look like: do the webinar or don’t do it, but the true choice is: do the webinar, or do anything else in the world that might take those same four hours of planning, prep, and execution. The cost of not doing other things often remains invisible.
3️⃣ WHAT IS THE PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL COST?
The problem isn’t saying no to boring opportunities which are easy to dismiss. The problem for most of us is knowing how to balance competing priorities. That’s why it’s so important to understand the hidden costs, including the physical and emotional, behind saying yes.
4️⃣ WOULD I FEEL BAD IN A YEAR IF I DIDN’T DO THIS?
Some missed opportunities may sting in the moment, like looking at a missed event and seeing how much fun everyone had while you were stuck fulfilling another obligation. But odds are in a few days, the FOMO will subside.
Several years ago I asked myself this question before deciding to take on school part time to tend to my Grandmother and her chemotherapy. It was by far the best decision I made as I got to know my Grandmother on a deeper level and create some profound, life changing memories.
We can make better decisions if we broaden our time horizon and ask how we’d feel in a year as a result of our choices. This was an easy choice – and clearly the right thing to do!
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These four similar questions can also be used to help think through strategic choices on an organizational level.
