Critical Learning Path Vs. Perfect Path
There’s a lot to be said for being able to progress along a perfect path to anything. I’m not even sure that’s possible in human endeavors. The main reason for this section is to lower any stress you may feel about starting on the road to more achievement, or greater happiness, or more wealth.
For example, let’s say you need to get on a video call with a work group and your supervisor that starts at 3:00 PM. The critical path (or critical point) is to actually join the group video at 3:00, right? Everything else will flow from accomplishing that critical task.
Is It Really Critical To The Success of The Mission?
Yes. Joining the call at 3:00 PM is a critical task.
However, there are other tasks we could add to make the path more perfect like brushing our teeth, again, before the event. We could spend some time fiddling with the visual controls of our webcam before we joined the group.
But – and this is the important concept – the “fiddling” with the controls is not a critical task in this instance.
Like Me, Did You Forget Something?
I was once scheduled to join a video call with a couple of other business colleagues at 9:00 AM from my home office. I overslept and rushed into my home office to join the meeting.
About 15 minutes into the call, the call leader asked if I would like to take a short break to put on a shirt? OMG. On my mental notepad, I moved having a shirt on during zoom calls from the “perfect path” to the “critical path” permanently.
Here is a link to understanding the critical path to success.
If you would like to read an article that presents information about the critical path methodology, here is a link to it.