Pivot: The Art and Science of Reinventing Your Career and Life by Markel Adam

Author:Markel, Adam [Markel, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2016-04-19T04:00:00+00:00

How to Baby-Step Your Pivot

If we’re going to talk about baby-stepping your pivot, the only way forward, naturally, is to baby-step the baby-step process. Here’s how you can use baby steps to turn pivoting from an overwhelming giant leap into something manageable.

Step 1: Break Your Dream into Smaller Pieces

Retired Colonel Russ Barnes is all about breaking down the dream. A decorated military officer, speaker, and author, Colonel Barnes is a master navigator with more than three thousand hours in T-37, T-43, B-52G, and B-52H aircraft. In his nearly twenty-eight years in the U.S. Air Force, he developed a system for getting things done, one step at a time. He used his system—“Routine Achieves Results”—to successfully move up the military ranks, earn several degrees, and, with his wife, raise four sons. Now he helps veterans transitioning to civilian careers reinvent themselves, one step at a time.

Colonel Barnes makes a habit of reverse-engineering his goals. From running a half marathon in under two hours to learning to fly bombers to building a business postretirement, he knows firsthand that anything is possible when you make a plan, break it down into manageable steps, and then take daily action toward the goal.

Recently I had the opportunity to hear about how Colonel Barnes achieved his goal of reading the Bible cover to cover in ninety days.

“I had read passages over the years, but I had never read the entire Bible from start to finish,” he explained.

Most of us could make the same claim. The King James authorized version of the Bible contains nearly 800,000 words—the equivalent of reading nearly an entire shelf of individual books. And if you’ve ever tried reading it, you’ll know that it’s a task that requires focus. A complete reading of the Bible is nothing like binge-watching your favorite reality series.

Colonel Barnes was determined to read it all, but he knew that to do so would require breaking the big leap of the whole Bible into smaller, more manageable steps. “I broke down my goal,” he said, “and determined that if I could read forty-five minutes to an hour every day, I would complete my goal in ninety days. So I got up at four in the morning every day to read. It was a simple step, taken routinely every day, that ensured I would reach my goal.”

Colonel Barnes applies the same system in his work with veterans. After they have identified their goals, he helps them break them down into manageable steps—baby steps—that can be completed easily on a daily basis.

Although not every pivot is as simple as dividing things by ninety, you can use the same principle. No matter how seemingly large, complex, or overwhelming, every pivot can be broken down—divided from larger leaps into smaller steps.

The starting point for the baby-step process is to simply brainstorm the steps—as you see them now—for your pivot. For example, let’s say you want to start a small business making custom furniture. Here are a few obvious things that might jump to mind:

• Learn about entrepreneurship.

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