Slow down, let yourself catch up

Calm

I’ve been struggling a bit lately with my mind, not an unusual thing, but I think I know why. I tend to skip way ahead looking at a much bigger picture than I need to and that can lead to seeing far too many problems before they even happen. Not only does worry and fear start to creep in, but I see things that I don’t understand yet and try to focus on knowing everything now and feel bad about if I don’t have all the answers in place. I know I need to let go of the fear of not knowing everything yet and allow some things to evolve, with the faith that they will work out when I get there. But it’s not as easy as it sounds to do that…

I need to focus on the very next step in front of me, get that done and by doing that, it will show the next step. Yeah I know, everyone tells me that, but sometimes being told something is not the same as figuring it out for yourself right?

I’m great at forward thinking and planning ahead, which was great when I dealt with big companies, I’d be able to foresee issues before they came up, I’d be super planned so they could manage their big operations and I’d play a really useful part in that. But now it’s just me and a really small team, so thinking too far ahead can be a big problem. Here’s a recent example that is clearly obvious to me – now!

I have been planning and preparing for the delivery of a launch of a program and a book for some time now. I’ve nearly finished the book, so close now – and it’s exciting. It’s also a little scary because the next part is getting it out there! We’ve been planning a campaign with the assistance of an online strategist, Dean Power, who’s been really helpful in breaking the whole process down into steps. I’ve learned a lot about online marketing over the last few years and now I’m super keen to put it all in to practice. But my mind immediately goes fast forward to creating the whole funnel, with three levels of lists and sales and all the corresponding websites that need to done and of course the list is quite big. When I met with Dean, he set me back on course and showed me just the very next step to be taken in the next 2 weeks, all achievable, all doable and all figure-outable. All of the rest is needed, but not yet! What a relief!

Here’s the thing, I really like seeing the big picture, enough to know what is going to be needed. I like to be prepared mentally and have things in place ready. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s also good to remember that some things you just have to work out as you go along. 

Plan the way, but don’t spend too long planning an exact route because:

  1. I haven’t learned everything I need to learn – yet, and I don’t need to until I get there.
  2. Even if it is correct, it most likely won’t turn out exactly that way, be prepared for some flexibility


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