Defining The Pursuit of Awesome: Part 2 - What does Awesome look like and how do we get it?

Defining The Pursuit of Awesome as a concept, or, as I prefer to think of it, a strategy and philosophy to live one's life by, is something I covered last week, but there's certainly more to it than that.

Yes, it ultimately means eschewing the average in favour of the awesome. Yes it means a life spent adding value to the world and finding one's own happiness in the process, but it's kinda hard to pursue anything if you don't know where to look for it.

Awesome means different things to different people, and that's exactly how it should be. The things that are important to me, or that make me happy, probably won't mean anything to you. That doesn't make them any less valuable, nor does it make me right and you wrong, or vice versa.

I'll admit that it took me a while to figure out the direction I should take in pursuit of my own awesome, but I eventually figured out by following a simple plan.

1) Decide what I want - what does Awesome loo like to me?
To run a marathon? To start my own business? To finally complete a computer game I paid for in 2008 and subsequently spent year sucking at? Yep, they're all on my 'Life List' (you may call it a 'Bucket List', but I figured 'Life' was more optimistic).

It started with a pen, a sheet of paper and several hours spent spilling all my hopes, desires and dreams on to the page. It didn't matter how ambitious nor how trivial they were, they were all slapped on the page, and would only stay there if they could pass Step Two.

2) Figure out why I want it
I recently penned a post on Lifehack about the importance of asking why which probably sums this up pretty well.

In a nutshell though, asking why brings the list we created into focus, eliminating anything that isn't truly important.

• Why do I want to run this marathon?
• Why do I want to start a business?
• Why do I want to waste so much of my time on a computer game?

If I can come up with a valid and logical answer to the question of 'Why?' which goes beyond 'Well, just because' , if the answer is that I can finally fulfil some long-burning ambition, make a difference to the world, or to the life of a particular person, or somehow add value, meaning and a sense of happiness to my own life, I start to have a clear idea of what Awesome looks like.

3) Plan the pursuit

Having a list of dreams, goals and ambitions is all well and good, yet pretty meaningless if we don't do anything to make them happen. After all this is the Pursuit of Awesome and not the Sit around and wait for awesome things to happen to you. 

So I have to ask:

• How will I make this happen?
• What resources will I need to make it happen?
• What will I be prepared to sacrifice to make it happen?
• How will I know if I'm on my way to making it happen?

That's planning the pursuit. Much like you don't (usually) set out in your car to get to a certain place without any idea of how you're going to get there, it's probably a pointless exercise to decide that we're going to reach our own state of Awesome without any idea of how we'll get there.

4) Keep track of the pursuit

How's it going? Are we there yet? Where did we take a wrong turn? How can we get back on the correct course?

Though some people may decide to turn off the highway at Step Three and plod merrily onwards until they reach their destination, I have trouble with that. How will I know if I'm on the right track if I don't pay attention to where I am, where I've been and where I'm going?

It's for this reason that I track and monitor my progress carefully (some may say obsessively), always making sure that I'm heading towards my goals or, if I'm not, where I went wrong and how I can get back on the right course.

5) Keep asking why
We've already asked why the things which define our Pursuit of Awesome  are important to us, that's why they're part of the plan and why we're working towards achieving these things.

But what if those reasons change? What if things that were once important to us no longer are? Do we keep pursuing them anyway out of some commitment to see things through regardless as to whether it really matters any more? We certainly could, and I doubt anyone would really hold it against you.

Yet isn't it more beneficial to the pursuit of things that are still important to us to stop wasting time, energy and resources on the things that aren't? 

As you carry out your plan and hurtle forward in your own pursuit of awesome, stop every now and again, take a look around and ask if this still actually matters. If the answer is yes, then carry on at speed my friend! If not, why not? And wouldn't it be better to abandon this particular pursuit altogether to focus on what really matters?