This is off character from my usual posts but advice that I use for myself often and with friends and clients.

And the truth is that we all need to get unstuck to some degree more often than not. Whether your 18 or 80, searching for a job or making a huge funding decision. Parts of this work for everyone at times.

The rules for using these are easy. Just ask and answer honestly and I guarantee you will have pieces of a plan to stumble forward with.

These work over a glass of wine with a friend. Or a few hours with a consultant making a business plan. Or as I use them often, as the nagging theme during a workout.

Four questions to drive action.

1. Do you know what you want to do?

Seriously. Be an entrepreneur and disintermediate the ad market? Find a job that is secure, pays the bills but drives social change? Make money while you blog about wine? Start another business on the side selling herbal supplements? Most people can’t answer this at all.

2. What are you passionate about?

Everyone needs to be able to answer this to do anything. And this really must determine what you do with yourself. This is who you are at your core. And usually what you are good at or determined to learn. This passion is what people hire or fund or follow or purchase from.

3. Do you have a network?

If you Google your name or set an Alert and nothing comes up, you need to seriously take pause. If you are interested in anything and want to do something with your interest, you’ve joined a club, commented on a blog, attended a Meet-Up, have a Linked In profile. If yes, you have the beginning of a network. And if no and all you do is call a recruiter, stop reading and get busy.

There are ways to build a network personally or for a brand, but to get started all you need to do is have interest and get moving.

4. Do you need to make money? How much? How quickly?

Can you self fund something and work at night to build a prototype pre seed investment? Can you afford to volunteer or earn minimal dollars to learn something about the industry you want to work in or change? Or are you starting from scratch?

For a entrepreneur without funding. For someone starting out in something new. For anyone building something new on the side. It’s going to take longer than you think. Without passion and a plan for support you won’t have the patience to endure. I’m certain of that.

I’m not a list maker by nature. But these four questions rolling around in your mind, on a whiteboard, put on a slide or squeezed into a spreadsheet define a direction.

For me these work and help out. Take what works for you.