Identifying Our Options

Getting out of the Office presents us with numerous options. Some are more obvious than others. And some may take considerable digging to identify. To repeat yesterday's theme, that is why beginning with the end in mind is so important. If I know what I want to do, I can start looking for the best way to do it.

The Internet certainly makes it much easier to discover new processes, services, and ideas. It is such a useful and powerful tool that I sometimes wonder how I ever survived without it. But it is only a tool, and like any tool, its usefulness is ultimately determined by the skills and imagination of the user.

Search engines are a prime example. There are many keywords that one can choose when conducting a search. And, while most search engines are somewhat intuitive, they can only utilize the information entered. For example, if I enter "paint" in Google, the first page is primarily manufacturers. However, if I enter "paint contractor" I get entirely different results. This may seem obvious, but it has big implications.

Let's say I decide that my goal is to work from home. This is a pretty vague goal, and could mean virtually anything. Am I going to operate my own business? If so, what kind? Am I simply going to telecommute? If so, for whom? Am I going to stuff envelopes, or operate some kind of phone service, or what? I could do any of these and work at home. Because my goal is so vague, the options are almost unlimited.

But if I decide my goal is to write 30 hours a week, while operating my paint contracting business remotely, I have really narrowed things down. I now know specifically what I am shooting for, and the options also narrow.

But even with a very specific goal, I still need to discover what options are available for dealing with the myriad issues that will arise. For example, what options are available that will allow me to access customer information remotely? Which leads to another questions-- how do I find out?

While this example is relatively simple, it illustrates a bigger issue. It can be quite easy to limit ourselves to false alternatives, to give ourselves fewer options than really exist. The result may a solution that is inadequate, or worse, abandonment of our goal because the options do not seem realistic.