Everything we do in life we can define. 

This can be for Myself - my health, my weight, what I eat, my friendships, my relationships, my exercise, my wealth, my feeling, any Thing about me etc. 

For Businesses - turnover, sales, customer satisfaction, profit, productivity, market share, growth rate, number of people, employee satisfaction, any Thing a business needs etc. 

For People - income, leadership, delivering results, energy, skills, drive, reducing stress, being happy, feeling satisfied, any Thing they need to feel fulfilled etc. 

First we need to define the Thing and measure it. Without this first step you will never move forward with the Thing. This can be hard, and some times people say, “you can’t measure the Thing I am talking about”, but until you do, you will never move forward. 

 

 

Next, when we have defined the Thing, we must now understand where we are Today. We need to truly understand the Thing Today in detail. Stop, review, reflect, and start to measure it. Gather facts and details about what is really happening not what you think is happening. Understand what happens over time, not just a one off. The more you truly understand the Thing Today, the better your ability to move forward will be. 

 

From experience most people will just make a statement and move on to the next stage. However this is a key mistake. You must spend time really understanding what is going on Today. Go and see the current situation, ask why is it happening, and respect what is going on. Use the poem - I have six honest serving-men, they taught me all I knew, they are What, and Why, and When, and How and Where and Who - Rudyard Kipling. 

 

 

So now we understand Today it’s time to define Tomorrow, or the target. Where do we want to get to, what do we want to achieve? The key is to stretch ourselves, only by aiming beyond our current level of understanding will we truly find excitement, and growth. 

This step is often called the scientific method. We create an idea of what the Tomorrow could be. This is our hypothesis, our idea, our stretch. If we don’t do this, we will only achieve what we have / know Today. Only through trying to go beyond what we know is achievable Today will we find our Tomorrow. 

A big and scary step, but fundamentally important to life. Mankind has only risen from the apes because we can envision a different future and then take action to try to get there. We are curious, so be so. 

 

 

The difference between the Today and the Tomorrow is the Opportunity. Sometimes called the gap or what we have to overcome. This is now the most exciting part of the diagram. Now it is time to Experiment. If we have truly understood where we are Today, defined a  

Tomorrow beyond our understanding of Today, then we have an exciting Opportunity. 

 

The Word Experiment is key to this step. From experience, if we make a plan of what we are going to do, and fail, we blame the plan. However an Experiment is about learning and growing knowledge. As we learn to experiment to achieve our Tomorrow, we find what works and what does not. This allows for more experiments until we achieve our Tomorrow. This is true learning. 

 

Mankind is here where we are today, because we explore what tomorrow could be. We experiment all the time, from when we are born, growing up and mature. We are either growing through learning or we are stagnant / dying. This to me, is why this is the most important diagram in the world. What do you think?