Today’s Mandala Message: Embrace the 70% Rule
This week I’m working through Principle #63: Start Now!…Just Do it! of Jack Canfield’s book “The Success Principles”. I set my intention today to ponder the 70% rule as a way to stop procastinating. From MindTools.com about procrastination they state: “Procrastination means unnecessarily putting off a task because it seems too difficult, unpleasant or boring – despite knowing that delaying will only make the situation worse.”
As part of offering ways to stop procrastination the article presented the 70% Rule, which “is about not waiting to know everything about a task before you tackle it. Instead, you make a start when you have around 70 percent of the information.”
Yesterday I talked about the shoe store window display project. The only reason I thought to apply for it was because I had enough of a vision about it that I felt comfortable with applying. Thankfully, not only did I get accepted, but I had 10 months to prepare. In the early days of prepping I struggled to determine how exactly I was going to make my vision work. Fortunately, an early step on my project to-do list was the task of meeting with an artist/curator friend of mine so I could pick her creative brain for display ideas. From there I was able to move forward to the next task on my list. And it continued that way over 9.5 months, slowly and steadily, doing a little bit every day, working my way through the task list.
I learned a valuable lesson from that project: until you start working on something, seeing what works and what doesn’t, it’s difficult (maybe even impossible) to know more than 70% or 80% in the beginning. It’s not until you get in there that you become aware of things that would be unknowable otherwise. My/Our challenge becomes being comfortable with starting something without necessarily knowing all of the details.
A good mindfulness practice would be to ponder which project you could start because you know at least 70% of what you need to know about it.
So how about you? Do you wait to start projects until you have 100% of the information? Are there some projects you’ve been procrastinating on where you know about 70% of the information? Are you willing to start any of them?
“It’s a job
— J.R.R. Tolkien
that’s never started
that takes the longest
to finish.”
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.
Mandala of the Day 