Two years ago I made a very, very tough decision in my professional life. It took a tremendous amount of trust, vulnerability, and courage to dive in and travel internationally.
One year later, I took another big step forward in my career. This has led me to fully believe the advice given by one of the mentors from “Tribe of Mentors” by Timothy Ferriss. That advice was this:
“Sometimes you must take the 5th step to then be able to take the 2nd step.”
Wait? What?
Quarterbacks do not throw the ball where their receivers are standing. They throw the ball to where they believe their receiver will be five steps into the future. Why does this only seem to be celebrated in football?
A lot of times people spend way too much time focusing on the next step. I too get caught up in this cycle. However, sometimes you need to do something that you think would be the 5th step to then provide enough time and clarity for you to then move back to your 2nd step. Now don’t mistake in taking this as taking a step back. I simply mean that in life, sometimes your 2nd step isn’t clear, and if it isn’t clear then why not take the 5th step?
Here are three other examples of iconic decisions to take the 5th step before taking the 2nd.
Apple launched their iPhone X after releasing their iPhone VIII. Yes, they skipped the iPhone VI. They did this in an attempt to take the 5th step before the second. So bold. Good work Apple!
George Lucas launched the 4th movie in his Star Wars film series first, which led him to his eventual destination of all six movies with a full audience, followership, and money behind him. In this case, he started at step six, rolled the dice, and then came back to the next step which was launching his films in this specific order which built momentum for his final film which was actually film number two.
Elon Musk decided to put a car in space before he sent people. Why? Because the 5th step wouldn’t be sending more people to space, it would be sending more machines to space. Why not take the 5th step to then take the 2nd?
What is the unique characteristic of these three examples? Each example is a household name. Someone knows someone who seen a TESLA drive by them on the highway yesterday. Everyone knows, something about Star Wars and Apple has become iconic in its ability to be the pinnacle of technology impacting our day to day lives.
These three household names have done what I did last year.
They rolled the dice.
They broke the rules.
They created a legacy of iconic.
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Many people are dying in the fight of “whats next” only to wake up one day asking, “Where am I?” finding themselves in the wrong ring. Don’t be that person. Dictate your own terms and carve out the 5th step before the 2nd. As Tony Robbins once said, “So many people get stuck on the how that they forget about the why.” Set you’rewhy and go! Don’t let the how stop you. If your why remains unchanged, eventually the how will figure itself out.
Take this idea and apply it to your area of influence. Make the decision to think about and act on the 5th step if you find yourself stuck on your next step.
Think bigger.
Think beyond and play the long game first, to then work backward on the short game!
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I wish for you to ‘go deep’ in your own life. For additional strategies on how to become more confident, organized, productive and successful in your life and vocation, I encourage you to pick up my latest ebook: Thought Leadership.
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This post was previously published on Medium.
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