The Journey Begins and Stage Two: Exploration
In the last post we shared that each of the five stages of the internal process has three basic components: emotions, cognition and actions. Emotions are all about feelings. Cognition is the process of knowing, perceiving and remembering. Action is driven by the need to get something done and is the doing. Based on observations of both individuals and teams over the years, here are the stages of this process: pre-decision, exploration, introduction, launch and autonomy. Each stage features different emotions as well as cognitive activities and actions.
Stage one: Pre-decision was in last week’s post and below is a closer examination of Stage Two: Exploration, the other three stages will follow in the next several posts.
Stage two: Exploration
- Emotions – excited, zeal, surprise, wonder, hope, fear, desire fear and stress are a few of the typical examples of emotions felt during stage two.
- Cognition – pattern recognition, perception, calculating, concept formulation and decision making are elements involved in stage two.
- Actions – information gathering, recording, developing, diagramming possibilities, collect data, gathering evidence and exploring risk assessment are some of the action elements of stage two.
Preparing to leap can really bring out individual differences. Each person prepares to make the leap into a new adventure in very different ways. Some individuals can make the jump without much investigation or accumulating much data. At the other end of the spectrum, the well-prepared individual needs to have done an in-depth investigation, gathered data and performed a full analysis, as well as having developed a highly detailed plan regarding how move ahead.
Sometimes after an exploratory investigation an individual will decide not to move forward. Reasons may include current obligations, lack of confidence, risk aversion, lack of supporting data or just plain fear. At other times, after only a preliminary investigation, the individual is ready to take the next step. The most important point here is, when the decision is made, it is a conscious decision on the individual’s part.
Once you make the commitment to move ahead, interesting things begin to happen that will impact your project. Helpful information and resources will appear or will be discovered. For example, an advisor may materialize through your research and will help you through the process. As you move forward, you will leave what you know behind, entering a world in which no matter how good your research, data gathering and analysis are, you will encounter unknown rules and boundaries. This leads to the final stage of exploration. You may begin to have “second thoughts,” have “buyer’s remorse,” or begin to think, “why did I decide to do this?” During this phase, you move from the known to the unknown. This can be the point where your greatest fear exists and you find the angel on one shoulder/ the devil on the other both are yelling at you at the top of their lungs. The unknown and unknowable are significant hurdles to overcome, but overcome them you must. This is the jump-off spot where you enter a new stage, the point at which you must be willing to leave the old behind.
Join us in our next post Hatching Your Million Dollar Business Idea: The Journey Begins for the next stage, introduction, with launch and autonomy in following posts. If you cannot wait for the posts and articles check out my book on YouTube, Amazon or visit us at Satori Inc. and “awaken your possibilities”.
