When I was knee-deep in IT break-fix several years ago, a former computer engineer with the US Marine Corps taught me a key lesson about troubleshooting problems. He shared with me a basic technique an old electrical engineer had taught him. If a circuit isn’t doing what it’s supposed to do, test it from the beginning of the circuit to the midpoint. If it works, treat the midpoint as the new starting point. Test from there to the midpoint between it and the end of the circuit. If it works, make that the new starting point and test to the midpoint between it and the end of the circuit. Keep doing that until your test fails. You’ve now isolated the problem between two points along the path. Start working backward, treating the last successful test point as the new starting point and the failed midpoint as the new end. This isolates testing to a specific segment of the path. Test to midpoint, and start the process over again and again until you find the problem.
It makes sense if you like electrical stuff. At least, it made sense to me. What stuck with me about the lesson in troubleshooting is that many of life’s problems can be solved in a similar manner. I built my technical career on the principle that any technology problem can be broken down into parts until a solution is derived. There is always a start and an end, so there is always a midpoint for testing.
When I moved into roles that focused more on project management, my brain processed problems in a certain way, and I quickly learned that the way I processed problems applied itself nicely to projects. I began to see all problems as projects…and all projects as problems that required solutions. The pattern that I applied was simple: a project starts, it ends, and somewhere along the way there is a midpoint. Instead of testing to midpoint, though, the question became one of what happens between start and midpoint. In project management, a midpoint is referred to as a milestone. As one derives midpoints between points, more milestones emerge. Some aren’t as important as others, and they are referred to as tasks. In project management, solutions are just the critical path from the start to the finish of a project.
Eventually, it dawned on me that the ability to shape my life lies in my ability to find solutions based on midpoints, milestones, and tasks. While this may appear to be an over-simplification of some of the complexities of life, my peace of mind comes from the knowledge that the basic methodology as an approach to survival works. I have proof. My proof is my life. Most of the great accomplishments in my life are the result of approaching the path to the goal as a series of milestones and tasks that get me from here to there. I uncover the path by observing the present, envisioning the preferred future, then discerning the midpoint. From there, determining the steps along the path becomes far less intimidating.
It’s not easy, but it is simple. In life, I find that shaping our paths is the same: not easy but simple. Complexity can be simple when approached methodically. This is what an electrical circuit taught me about life.
Illuminate Possibilities 