Welcome to Episode 43 of Praestabilis: Excellence in Marketing.

In Episode 43 the topic is “taking the next logical step” in your life and business.

I continue to believe that everything we do in our lives is in preparation for something that will come in the future. There are dozens of examples of how this has manifested in my own life and in the lives of people around me and I will share a few with you here. But first let’s examine what it means to always be taking the next logical step in your life experience.

This concept was first introduced to me by an early mentor named Armand Morin. He is a logical thinker and attempted to turn his mentees into successful entrepreneurs by having us think a few steps ahead in our businesses. Instead of creating a product he encouraged us to create a “product line” and instead of planning a live or virtual event he preferred that we create a program that included ongoing events. After working with Armand my thinking shifted and my goals got bigger. This was the next logical step for me at that time.

If you begin with the precept that we are all just ordinary people, capable of achieving extraordinary goals then the next logical question is “What can you do today to move yourself closer to the life you desire?” I realize that answering this question may seem like an insurmountable task right now. You might even be thinking that if you knew what you do today, and each day to move closer to your goals you would already have arrived at the doorstep to success.

If only it were that easy! Taking the next logical step is simple, but our sophisticated minds take us on a journey that complicates the simple and makes it anything but easy. Let’s explore how to simplify our thinking and take it one step at a time…

Years ago I was in a graduate course on educational psychology. The first day we were given the assignment to describe to the rest of the students how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We were to bring in the necessary items and instruct someone on how to achieve this goal. I was sure I’d be able to ace this because of my years of experience with making sandwiches of all kinds. Without thinking about it very much I packed a plate, butter knife, jars of my favorite peanut butter and jelly, several slices of bread, and some paper towels into a bag. When I arrived at my classroom I saw that the other students had done the same, with some variations such as napkins instead of paper towels and different types of utensils for spreading the two ingredients on the bread.

The first person was called upon and came to the front of the room. The professor asked him to choose another student as an assistant. He was then to give the instructions to the helper, who would then make the sandwich by following the exact steps he offered up.

This became a comedy of errors as he called out what to do next. Because making a sandwich is second nature to almost everyone we tend to leave out some important steps, such as taking the bread out of the bag, opening the jars of peanut butter and jelly, and most hilarious of all, only slathering them on one side of each piece of bread. And just the idea of following a step by step set of instructions eliminated the creativity and took the fun out of this activity for many of the students.

So how then do we formulate our own logical steps for getting from where we are right now to closer to where we wish to be? I will share an example based upon my experience as a new online entrepreneur in 2006. I could soon see it would be “sink or swim” and I was determined to achieve success and build a profitable and lucrative business on the internet.

Looking back to this time, I’m not sure how I thought I was going to make a living online. But what I lacked in experience I more than made up for with my enthusiasm. Sitting in front of my computer I attempted to figure it out all on my own.