Fire, Ready, Aim
Ready. Aim. Fire.
The canons explode. The musket fires. Controlled chaos.
Fire, Ready, Aim.
The canons explode, in the wrong direction. The musket is not loaded. Chaos.
Ready, aim, fire is a 3 step process that must be done in that exact order in order to get the desired outcome. Without all three steps in that order, you will get uncalculated chaos.
What is interesting, is that we rarely do the 3 steps in that order.
Why is that?
Ready, aim, fire is not natural. The natural instinct is to skip straight to the fire. To jump in head first. To do first, think later, and plan never. Ready, aim, and fire requires discipline. It requires you to take a deep breath and pause before acting. It requires you to think. To use that big squishy thing between your ears. Ready, aim, fire is the 3 step process that creates greatness. Fire, ready, and aim creates mediocrity.
So, how can we stop firing first and thinking later?
Here are three steps that will improve our ability to get ready, aim, and fire.
Remember to think. This may fly in the face of what we would expect, but most of us forget to think. When you are firing a cannon, it is pretty evident that you need to get ready and then aim. When you are walking into a meeting it is less evident that you need to get prepared. Create reminders for yourself. Whether that is a calendar reminder, a post-it note, or a tattoo on your forehead, find a system that works best for you and commit to it. Have a meeting at 12 pm? Send yourself a calendar invite for 11 am to prep for the meeting.
Write out your thinking. One of the most powerful exercises is writing out your plans. By writing them out you are able to understand your plan in further detail, notice any flaws, and come back to it after the fact and evaluate how prepared you were. Did you have a meeting at 12 pm and started prepping at 11:45 am only to find yourself underprepared? Start at 11:30 am next time.
Understand the gravity. Preparation is what makes great people great. Without preparation, we are rolling the dice. With preparation, we are stacking the deck in our favor. You should always stack the deck.
Ready. Aim. Fire. That is all there is to it.