What to Do if You Dont Know What to Do

what to do when you don't know what to do

Sometimes you just don't know what to do.

Y'all're a grown-upward. So, yous're always supposed to know what to practice, right? Unfortunately, that's not e'er the case. Look at the post-obit situations:

You take a problem at work, and you don't know what to do.
Everything is going as it should. Then, something unexpected happens that derails your plans, and you don't know what to practise to get your plans back on track.
Your business is not doing equally well as you had hoped, and yous don't know what to practise.
At that place's a goal that you would like to pursue, but you keep procrastinating on getting started because you lot don't know what to do.

First, have that it's OK not to know everything. Then, look for a way to get back in the game. Below you'll find five things to practice when you don't know what to do.

ane. Go More Information. Whatsoever trouble you may be having at this moment, you can rest assured that someone else has already had that problem. And they've solved it. In addition, they've written a book or an commodity about the problem and what they did to solve it, or they've created a YouTube video explaining what they did.

Look for that data and apply it to plan your next pace.

ii. Notice a Mentor. One of my favorite Television set shows of all time is "The West Fly". Information technology's fast, it's entertaining, and I acquire something new every fourth dimension I watch an episode of the show, no affair how many times I've seen information technology before. In one episode, Leo—the Chief of Staff—tells the post-obit story to his assistant, who's going through a hard time:

"This guy's walking downwardly the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.

"A doctor passes past and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Tin you help me out?' The doc writes a prescription, throws it downward in the hole and moves on.

"And then a priest comes forth and the guy shouts upwards, 'Begetter, I'g down in this hole. Can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it downward in the hole and moves on.

"And so a friend walks past, 'Hey, Joe, information technology's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you lot stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, merely I've been down here before and I know the fashion out.'"

When yous're facing a trouble and you don't know what to do, find a friend or acquaintance who has already been in the pigsty you lot're currently in. Then, inquire them for assist getting out, or for some advice or ideas on what to do.

3. Act, Learn, Build, Repeat . The Harvard Business Review has an article in which they lay out the process that you should follow when you lot don't know what to exercise. The process they recommend is the following:

Take a smart step equally quickly as you can. A smart stride is one which you can take speedily with whatever means you already have at your disposal. Make certain that the step y'all're thinking of taking could not upshot in a loss that'due south greater than what would be acceptable.
Reflect on the results that you get once yous take the smart step. Every time yous act you become some sort of information or feedback in return. Are y'all at present closer to your goal? Did taking the step reveal that at that place'due south something else that yous demand to practice? What did you lot learn from the activeness that you took? Build on the results that you got by acting.
Echo until you lot solve the problem or accomplish the goal. Act, larn, build, and repeat until you achieve the results that y'all're later.

4. Do The Obvious. The other 24-hour interval I came across a booklet called "Obvious Adams: The Story of A Successful Businessman". Information technology was start published equally a brusque story in the Sabbatum Evening Mail service in Apr, 1916. The story was an immediate hit and soon became a business classic.

Oliver B. Adams was an ordinary man. He was not peculiarly bright, good looking, or charismatic. However, he was in advert—which is a very competitive field—and he managed to rise to the very top of the earth of advertising. He did this by having a knack for the obvious.

Hither's what the author of the booklet, Robert R. Updegraff, once said virtually doing the obvious:

"The trouble is, the obvious is apt to exist so elementary and commonplace that it has no appeal to the imagination. Nosotros all like clever ideas and ingenious plans that make skillful lunch-tabular array talk at the social club. There is something nearly the obvious that is–well, so very obvious!"

Adams succeeded considering at every step of his life, he did the obvious matter. That is, he did the thing which well-nigh people miss because it's so unproblematic. Instead of coming upward with long, drawn out, circuitous plans, he would expect for the most mutual sense approach to solving the problem earlier him.

The next time yous don't know what to do, follow Obvious Adams' atomic number 82. Ask yourself, "What's the obvious solution or the obvious next stride?" Then, do the obvious. (You tin can read "Obvious Adams", for free, here.)

v. Find a Bright Spot. In their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, brothers Chip and Dan Heath explicate that one approach to solving problems is to look for brilliant spots. That is, find out what's working and do more of it.

For example, suppose that your kid comes home with their report card. The good news is, he got an A+ in English. The bad news is, he'due south barely passing science. At that point, if you're going to follow the bright spot arroyo, you would do the following:

Ask your child what he'southward doing in lodge to get such good grades in English language.
Then, brainstorm ways in which he could apply those same strategies to studying for scientific discipline.

When you're facing a situation in which you don't know what to do, recollect of problems that you've solved in the past, or remember of goals that yous've been successful in achieving. Ask yourself the following questions:

How did you solve those bug?
What strategies did you use?
What did y'all do to achieve those goals?
How can yous apply what you've done in the by to achieve your goals or solve problems, to the problem that you're facing in the nowadays?

Figure out what to exercise, when you don't know that to practice, by thinking of the bright spots in your life and looking for ways to clone or replicate them.

Conclusion

Cease allowing the phrase "I don't know what to do" to paralyze you. Instead, do ane of the v things explained above. Live your all-time life by having a strategy for those times when you don't know what to practice.