How do you eat an ELEPHANT?

I met with a client today and we were discussing her longings and discontent, her dreams and goals and the gap in the middle. She proceeded to tell me all of the things she has read, the trainings she has listened to, and all of the thought leaders she follows. She then moved on to all of the reasons she believes why she hasn’t seen movement towards the realization of her dreams. I understand her frustration. I’ve been there. I know the pain of “paralysis by analysis”.

Like many of my clients, she has some bold things she would like to get accomplished and she’s certainly done her research. It’s so easy to get lost in all of the things that need to get done. Starting a business or a new journey can be daunting. For instance, with a new business, some of the things to consider are products or services, determining your niche, advertising, packaging, websites, blogs, social media preferences to advertise and connect with your audience, lead generation, copyright, trademarks, insurance, the list can go on and on. The list becomes an elephant of a to-do list. One thing for sure, until you have a product or service, you don’t need a website. If you don’t have your niche nailed down and know who your audience is, then your advertising dollars will be wasted, along with time spent trying to reach people through social media.

My client was so overwhelmed by the cost of the website she would eventually need, that she allowed that overwhelm to stall her along the journey of her product development. Her mindset was, “if I can’t afford this, then there’s no point in doing that.” When, in reality, if she didn’t do that (develop product), she would certainly never need that (the website).

The new year is around the corner. Many of you are wanting to learn new skills, make changes to your health and wellness, look for new sources of income, improve relationships, etc. Change, alone, can be daunting, everything needed to create change can be even more daunting. Have you started planning and researching yet? Are you overwhelmed before you’ve even started?

I want to encourage you. I believe any dream or goal given to you in your heart and soul was companioned with the ability to accomplish said dream or goal. Saying this, it’s imperative to offer ourselves some grace in the process. Yes, we can have big dreams and goals. In fact, I’ve always been told if your dream doesn’t scare you…at least a bit…it’s not big enough! However, the grace comes in breaking it down into actionable, doable steps. Then, as you accomplish those mini steps, celebrate your accomplishments; don’t wait until the end. Celebrating the mini-steps you’ve taken towards your dreams and goals builds confidence. Confidence is a muscle. As you build your confidence muscle you become someone who is willing to take bigger actions and bigger steps. There is a mindset tool that I use whenever I begin to feel overwhelm with something I’m trying to accomplish. It is this,” do what you can, from where you are, with what you have.” In the case of my client, we discussed the use of a free FB business page as a way to bridge the gap while still accomplishing some her advertising, branding and customer educational goals instead of being overwhelmed by the cost of a website.

At some point in the journey to our dreams, ACTION needs to replace PREPARATION FOR ACTION. Any action towards your goal is positive. Small actions taken on behalf of our dreams and goals done with consistency will change your life.