Ways to distinguish yourself #179 – Invent new possibilities daily

By Rajesh Setty on Mon 20 Aug 2007, 7:45 AM - 7 Comments

I am fortunate to get to meet a lot of bright young people who have bold dreams. Their eyes lit up when they explain how they are going to change the world. They have wonderful ideas. Sadly, many of them do not take any action on them TODAY because they are waiting for something to happen first. Typically, they are “getting ready” to do something big.

* Some of them want to finish their MBA before they are ready
* Some of them want to make LOTS of money before they are ready
* Some of them want to be a BIT MORE famous before they are ready
* Some of them want to be financially independent before they do anything significant

In summary, these people are waiting for a few more resources (eg: money, connections, fame, status..) before they are “fully ready” go after their dreams.

You can distinguish yourself if you choose to – by deciding to invent new possibilities daily. Don’t take this literally. When I say daily, I mean with whatever resources you currently have access to TODAY. Let’s think about that for a minute. What could be those resources that you have right now. Here are a few:

* Your experience so far
* Yoour connections – the people that you have lasting relationships with
* The projects you have executed
* The money you have
* The place you live in – Your city, state and country can be a possibility
* Your family, friends and colleagues
* The company that you are part of
* The associations and groups that you are a member of
* The books you have read

I can go on and on. The question is with all these resources that you have today, what new possibilities can you invent and act on TODAY?

The problem with knowledge and resources is that the more you have them, more you realize how much more of them you need. If you are looking to accumulate more resources before you an ACT on your dream, you may be WAITING for a long time. Why not change the game and start inventing possibilities with ALL the resources that you ALREADY HAVE?

In other words, while you are accumulating resources and knowledge to chase your big dream, what new dreams can you paint in parallel with ALL the resources you have today?

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Note1: For the other 178 entries in the “Distinguish yourself” series, please visit my Squidoo lens on the same topic
Squidoo Lens: Distinguish yourself

Note 2: The first 25 entries in the series have been packaged in a ChangeThis manifesto that was published on September 07, 2005. You can download that manifesto here:
ChangeThis Manifesto: 25 Ways to Distinguish Yourself (PDF, Free)

Note 3: My latest manifesto on ChangeThis was published on August 6, 2008. This is a photographic manifesto featuring 15 of my mini sagas (stories in exactly 50 words). Here is the link:
ChangeThis Manifesto: Mini Sagas – Bite Sized Lessons for Life and Business (PDF, Free)

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Aditya Kothadiya on August 20th, 2007

Very aptly said Rajesh!

But I think, here you have covered only “WANT TO” reasons of young people. There is also a set of people who are caught into the “MUST HAVE TO WAIT” trap!

Typically, these are immigration related issues, family or marital responsibility issues, mortgage or loan repaying issues, etc. My common observation of young people is, due to these factors, even they are “fully ready” to act on their dreams, they can not act on it.

But Of course, as you said, the bottom line remains the same in both scenarios. We should paint parallel dreams with our current resources. But again, that brings the question of “focus” in early stages of your dreams!

I understand that my points are not show stoppers to follow your advice, but I just wanted to highlight that there are more factors in this equation of “achieving our dreams”.

Best,
Aditya
http://adeologue.com

Rajesh Setty on August 20th, 2007

Thanks Aditya.

They say creativity comes out when there are constraints.

Think of the “must have to wait” as the constraints within which you have to work and invent new possibilities.

My worry is that “must have to wait” can be used as a crutch by many people to not act.

My $.02 of course.

Best,
Raj

2Weeks2aBreakthrough on August 21st, 2007

Another post from Raj – Invent New Possibilities Daily…

You might think that I was trying to butter up Raj Setty – linking to him two days in a row. Nope! I just love this post called, Ways to distinguish yourself #179 – Invent new possibilities daily. Read the…

Derrick on August 21st, 2007

Really good post, and I completely agree. I think that the reason most people wait is that they are afraid of failing; they’ve been trained since young that failure isn’t good, and they believe that with more resources they’ll succeed.

The core of it is the fear of failure, and I think that’s something society needs to address, from the education system up.

Cody McKibben on August 21st, 2007

Rajesh, this is a great post. Thanks for giving us these things to think about. If you meet many of these great young people who aspire to be something, and change the world, send them over to me! =) At THRILLINGheroics.com I am trying to build community around young leaders who would like to really take advantage of their resources and make their dreams come true, but as Derrick said above, it is often very hard to deal with the fear of failure on your own.

Venkk on August 26th, 2007

Rajesh,

This is by far one of the best strategic advice one can get. At any point of time in one’s situation one must be able to make best use of available possibilities to make things happen. Its most important to make any progress.

Again, thanks for the great post.