Desire to Destination – D2D Marathon
“Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yields themselves up when taken little by little.”
-Plutarch
When starting as a dream spark and becoming a strong desire in the heart, destination is not the next immediate door, just available to open. It requires planning, execution, evaluation, feedback, improvement, and the cycle continues until the final goal is reached.
The very important step at this moment is to visualize the full vision of how it will be when achieved and identify the objectives that need to be met. With that being said, identify all the steps to be taken to achieve each one of the objectives. The next step is to prioritize them and establish how to execute the important things first and move to the next, one after another.
The grandeur vision or each objective should be split into achievable milestones. By achieving each milestone it should result in achieving the bigger vision.
A very important factor which will determine the success of your journey from a desire to destination is the goal date. If the goal date is not deterministic it will show up as delays or poor quality deliveries or simply no movement and stay as a long, distant star that we are not capable of achieving.
Once the milestones are prioritized, setting the goal dates for each milestone is a must, as this will provide the drive needed to achieve each one within the specified deadline.
“A goal without a date is just a dream.”
– Milton H. Erickson
Demonize Deadline:
We all know, when we achieve the goal it reaps benefits, but in spite of the good things it is natural tendency to procrastinate to do the needed action and wait until the last moment hits. We do know it is know it is important, that’s why we set a goal date, but as the mind likes fun than pain, it tries to avoid work.
To avoid procrastination and rushing at the last moment or to avoid delay, you need to portray a demonized future self of you, not achieving the goal, and also visualize the loss in opportunity and the defame it might bring.
When the fear of not achieving is bigger, it will push you to do the action and help you to finish it before the expected time.
Fear can be a catalyst for action and to retain focus.
Desire to Destiny (D2D) Marathon:
I have used “Scrum” as a base process vehicle to formulate this pattern.
What is Scrum? Scrum is an iterative and incremental framework for managing product development.
There are several books and websites to explain the concept to get a deeper understanding.
Scrum is used in a variety of fields to achieve success, especially in professional setups. It is time for us to adopt and apply the proven techniques in our dream projects to increase our chance of success. It is a formalized commonsense practice.
We can adapt this process in the below-prescribed form, which I call Desire to Destination Marathon (D2D Marathon).
If you want to expand your understanding of Scrum, there are several books and websites to explain the concept.
D2D Marathon follows a five-step process from a very high level
- Pre-Start – Step 0: Dream Projector – Now you have a strong desire to execute
- Step 1: Create Backlog list
- Step 2: Prioritize the items and create multiple quarterly release plans (as needed)
- Step 3: Execute the first quarter release plan
- Validate your output
- Celebrate your release completion.
- Step 4: Continue to your next release plan, repeat steps 2, 3, 4 until the final goal is achieved.
- Step 5: Publish your Art! Have Fun.
Backlog creation:
Once you convert your dream to desire using “Dream Projector”, you need to finalize a list of things to be handled. Scrum calls this a backlog list.
Once the backlog list is created, prioritize the items which are more important to do and create an order of execution. Concentrate only on the items which you need to handle for the next few weeks. You don’t need to make any detailed plans for the items which you are going to do next month or later, but always have a grander vision of how all these things need to flow.
The biggest power of Scrum is that the initial backlog list is not written in stone, as it may change during the execution, and Scrum allows us to inspect often and do the necessary pivots as needed.
Release Plan:
Every project takes time. Sometimes it takes months or years. Instead of trying to achieve the whole chunk in a single shot. Split your vision into manageable milestones and prioritize them for to be executed in repeated cycles of timeboxes called release.
Every release plan should not exceed a maximum time period of 1 quarter (3 months). Some follow monthly release plans. It is based on your choice. My recommendation would be to keep a quarterly cycle.
Each Release Plan execution follows a five-step process
- Step 1: Create a weekly execution plan from your backlog list based on the priority.
- Step 2: Execute Tiny Execution – 1-week sprint
- Inside each weekly sprint, perform work to finish the planned items.
- Follow Time Machine and Egg Hunt regularly
- At the end of the week, reflect on how and what you executed.
- If all good, follow the same step in the upcoming Tiny execution.
- If changes are required – do the necessary modifications before proceeding.
- Step 3: Repeat the Tiny executions until the end of the quarter or till the release plan achievement, whichever comes first
- Step 4: Validate your output and direction
-
- If the direction is good continue
- Direction not good
- If correction is needed, do a pivot
- If not worth continuing – STOP the waste.
- Step 5: Celebrate your release completion.
Tiny Execution – 1-week Sprint:
Any great work requires perseverance and if executed one step at a time, the culmination of small steps will reveal itself as a masterpiece.
Once the release plan is devised, now you have a quarterly goal to achieve. To reach the goal it requires action. Each tiny execution is timed to be a maximum of a 1-week sprint cycle. It can start on Monday and end on the weekend.
From the release plan, based on the priority, pick the items of most importance first. Ensure each item or a combination of multiple items are able to be completed within the timeframe of 1 week. If you think the particular item is going to take more than 1 week, split the items into multiple small items and prioritize them in order and take it into the 1-week sprint for execution.
Use “Time Machine” to log your work often and to ensure that you are able to achieve what you wanted on the daily basis.
Every day’s success will lend itself to a weekly sprint success.
Reminders: Use some form of visual reminder which can motivate you to take action towards your goal. I use Aspirant Tribal Bands as a way to remind me to work towards my goal.
[Photos – tribal bands]
Sunday Reflection, Course Correction, Celebration:
Sunday is considered as the first day of the week and can also be the day to reflect on the ART you created in the “Tiny Execution” for the past week.
Identify:
- What went well, which you are going to continue to do
- What went wrong, and what you need to change
- What new strategies you want to follow in the upcoming Tiny Executions
- If the course is correct or if it needs pivoting
Celebrate what you are able to achieve and plan for the items to be handled for the next “Tiny Execution”.
Repeat the Tiny Execution cycles within the release period to achieve your release plan goals. Repeat your release plan again and again, until you achieve your final destination you put forth for yourself.
Every day’s success will lend itself to a weekly sprint success.
Every successful sprint is one step closer to achieving your destination.
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