Pillar Two: Big Dreams, Small Steps
In the last blog I talked about how important it is to embrace your own unique work style. Hopefully you have had a chance to sit down with a cuppa and pull your thoughts and schedule together. Keep that schedule close at hand, because today you’re going to need it!
Now that you have a sense of when you can work, let’s get to the business of working. I’m just guessing here but … calendar looks amazing and you still aren’t getting anything done toward your greater goal?! Again, just a guess … your goal seems huge and you have no idea where to start? Been. There. Take a deep breath and get comfortable. We’re about to move you forward!
Oh, first, go grab a large notepad and your favorite pen. Ready? Okay - back to moving forward!
When we break our big dreams down into small steps, we make progress without even noticing. It’s like taking a nice walk. You don’t remember each step you took on the path. However, there may be some beautiful scenery, good conversation, and then when you look behind, you see how far you have come!
Like any walk we need to decide where we are going. So, what is your big dream? Take a break here and define it: the target. Simply saying that you want to open an online store is a super fun idea however, it is not enough. What will you be selling? Not specific SKUs here, but I do need you to know what products. Let’s go with an online store selling stationery products. That’s a target. So, take a second and write your target across the top of that lovely large notepad.
This is fun! Let’s keep going. Let’s play around with the online store idea a bit more. What action buckets will get you toward this target? In this scenario the buckets may be setting up a business, creating a website and sourcing products. Can you apply this to your big dream? You should have a couple of steps. More than 3? Take a critical look and be sure you have clearly defined your target and that you are grouping together like areas of activity. I love getting organized, even if it’s just someone else’s imaginary dream. Are you ready for more?
Being the astute reader that you are, I’m sure you have noticed that these buckets, yep, that’s why they’re called buckets, are not the end and are in fact loaded to the brim with ‘to-dos.’ You are so very correct. However, it’s totally okay because now you’re starting to get the hang of how to break things down into smaller pieces and that is what we will continue to do. For example, under starting a business I might start listing items like identify desired business type, understand state and local tax requirements, complete applications and the list goes on. In fact those may even need to be broken down further. You would then go on to do this for the other two categories. I’m happy to wait here while you take a few minutes to write as much as you can under each of your categories. I love the feeling of getting all my swirling and seemingly disjointed thoughts, onto one sheet of paper. Drawing connections and building categories. Creating a place for future additions. The joy!
I can’t see it but, I can tell, your notepad is looking pretty good right now. You’ll want to keep this paper somewhere as you will find yourself adding to the lists as you go. If you find that you get stuck or your progress stalls, I want you to take another look at your tasks. Should they be broken down into even smaller pieces? Stay open to tweaks and adjustments. Always. In fact, let’s go ahead and apply that to life.
Moving on . . . Now that you have the hang of breaking things down, we are going to get very practical. I want you to grab the calendar/schedule you created after the last post. I’m okay if you want to use your online calendar, however I do feel very strongly about the benefits of writing things down. We’ll save that for another blog. Anywho . . . let’s start plotting this out. The first rule is that you need to touch your dream everyday. In order to do that we need to start by finding the first page of the year. Please don’t wait until the start of the calendar year. Everyday is the start of a new 12 month period. Now that we’ve cleared that up, go ahead and write your big dream on that page. Make it pretty, make it neat, make it look however you want, just write it down. Next, go to the first page of the month and note what you want to get done this month. This should reflect a goal from each of your buckets. Now we are to the real nitty gritty of it all; It’s time to plan your week.That means that each day, you are going to write a task from that list you created those many paragraphs ago. Ideally you will have at least one item from each of your buckets. (I completely understand if things like laundry and grocery store also make the list of daily tasks - that’s all part of the process.)
Finally, just as I asked that you be honest with yourself in learning to work your way. This is another opportunity for you to practice self awareness. Every couple of weeks I want you to flip back to the first page of the month and review your goal. Are you making progress toward your monthly goals? Toward you big dream? If the answer is anything but yes, I want you to stop. Step away from your computer, take a deep breath and call a friend. Or take a walk. Maybe a cup of whatever comfort beverage you chose at the beginning of the post? Whatever it is that you do to gain a bit of perspective, do that thing. Then lean heavily on your finely honed self awareness skills to take a look at where you are and where you are getting stuck and begin the process of working through it. Keep breaking that big dream down into small steps, turning ideas into actions and moving forward. You’re online store will be open before you know it!
Colored pencils and checkboxes make me so happy!