Career & Business Coaching Blog.
Inspiration and tips for multi-passionate creatives & entrepreneurs.
How to build in rest so you can be productive
I’ve worked so hard to get my book, Get Unstuck!, finished and am super excited to announce the official release date for all editions is October 25th! However, right now, you can preorder the Kindle Edition and save yourself a couple of bucks! All copies come with a free workbook to help you identify what is getting you stuck and how to overcome that mindset so you can go after what you want - as well as tons of prompts to help you achieve the steps to get there! But there’s more! With your preorder, you’ll also get a personal invitation to my virtual book launch in November 2023!
I think the best part about watching a goal come to fruition is knowing that on the other side is some much-needed rest. I’m grateful to be able to take resets. They’re so important to me and my ability to help my business flourish. When I decided to get myself unstuck, I knew that I had to build in pockets of time off. It was scary to admit that I wasn’t a robot who could work 18-hour days, 7 days a week without needing a break - that’s what we are trained to do, isn’t it? No complaining, just working.
But once I finally admitted that I wasn’t a robot, that I needed rest, and that rest would actually make me better at what I did, everything else slid into place. With more rest, and holidays or breaks to look forward to, I became more productive with my time. Instead of doom-scrolling, I was focused on what I needed to get done.
Is this something you struggle with? Have you been raised - like most of us were - to think that work meant grueling hours, always busy, always struggling, and always feeling bad about what you were missing out on?
If you nodded your head yes to any of that, it’s time to start redirecting that thought process. Here’s how:
Build work boundaries. If you want to have more time for yourself and feel rejuvenated at work, you need to start building boundaries at work. If you are contracted to work 8 am - 5 pm, don’t bring your work home with you. Leave it at work. If you want to see your son’s football game, or your daughter’s fencing competition, or even just go home and bake a cake, you have to make your boundaries clear and then stick to them as much as you can. The more you do this, the more you will see that the work-life balance all the gurus talk about becomes your reality.
Ditch the busywork. I’m a huge proponent of productivity versus busywork. If you’re constantly busy but never getting anything done, you aren’t really busy, you’re just filing your time. If, instead, you focus on getting the thing that needs to be done in a certain amount of time, without distractions, you’ll find you can get more done and be able to rest or refresh outside of that time. And if you aren’t sure how to start, check out the Pomodoro Method. You set a timer for 25 minutes and that is your productive, focused time. After the 25 minutes, you get a five-minute break. You do that over and over again until the work is done. You’ll be surprised at how much you end up working through in those short 25 minutes when you have five minutes built in to breathe.
Visualize the life you want. When you visualize the life you want, you end up motivating yourself to do the small tasks that will get you there. For example, if you want to go to medical school at 35 years old, you need to believe in yourself and have a clear vision of the life you want to get you through the challenges that medical school will present. By getting clear on that vision, you can see how the difficult experiences you have now are helping you get there.
Develop better time management skills. As you learn to manage your time better, you are actually loosening your grip on it. When we focus too much on the time we have left to do something, we can get overwhelmed quickly. Instead focus on how you can maximize the time you have to get the most done. You’ll finish your day feeling fulfilled and ready to start the next day.
Make time to meditate. There are several forms of meditation - mindfulness, transcendental meditation, walking meditations, and more. You can choose whichever one works best in the moment, but the point is to stay consistent. Meditation has been shown to lower your heart rate, help with stress and anxiety, and also increase your cognition. When you meditate, you’re giving your brain time to relax, which can help you think more clearly while you’re working. Even just five minutes a day can provide you with real rest that will boost your productivity, ease your stress, and help you figure out the steps you need to take to get unstuck. It’s really an amazing thing!
Changing our mindset around rest and work is the most crucial step in getting unstuck and having the life we want. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get going!
Time to reset your mindset!
Mindset work is the most important step in all of my work, but it’s also the hardest.
If you haven’t been able to shift your mindset on your own, I can help! My clients and I work diligently to figure out exactly how your brain interprets the world and then create a plan to shift that interpretation. It’s pretty incredibly what we can do together!
How to choose your hard and get unstuck!
For years, I wanted to start writing a book. When I finally decided to write one, I would wait till inspiration hit before I sat down to write. I would stop the moment I felt like the inspiration had waned. My entire writing experience, then, was centered around getting into - and falling out of - a flow state. But flow states can be fickle. They don’t come when we call, they come when they want to. If I waited for inspiration to write, it would take me years to finish my first book.
I knew there had to be a different way. I knew I was stuck and had to find a way to get unstuck. So I started writing every day. I gave myself a time frame that I had to sit in front of my computer and type. It didn’t matter if it was cohesive or spelled correctly; I just had to type. Sometimes, inspiration would be there with me, guiding me along, but most of the time, I was on my own. Most of the time, I was writing because I’d built a habit.
It made me realize that when motivation is lacking, you have to rely on your dedication. On days when I don’t feel like writing, my dedication to the habit of writing guides me to the computer and gets me through the time slot I’ve set aside.
This experience was the start of of my get unstuck method. I realized that when you want to change something about your life - or your work - you have to start by changing your mindset. I wanted to write, so I changed my mindset about how I write (every day no matter what for 1 hour), focused on taking responsibility for my thoughts and emotions around writing and being an author, visualized the new life and habit I wanted, and then mustered the courage to go out there and do it.
“Getting Unstuck!” might sound like a tagline, but it’s really a mantra - one that was born out of necessity and evolved into a way of life. It’s about planting your feet and digging deep into the ground of discipline. It’s about daily action and building new habits.
The truth is, there is simultaneous pain and joy in growing into someone new. You can be both excited to start something new and terrified of the work it will take to get where you want. You can be both happy to change and miss the old life you lived where you knew what to expect. And you can be miserable in your life and work and still choose to stay there because the alternative is even more daunting. There is a duality between freedom and discipline; you’re allowed to feel and experience more than one emotion at the same time.*
I heard someone say once, “Everything is hard. Choose your hard.” Being stuck is hard. You are afraid to go after the life and work you want, so you procrastinate, get overwhelmed, and hide behind your fears. That’s hard and it gets harder the longer you stay in that headspace. However, getting unstuck is hard too. You have to put in the work, change your mindset, figure out what you want to do, create a vision for the life you want, and start implementing the steps to get there.
Here are a few things to think about when choosing your hard:
You’re going to be sacrificing either way. Whatever it is you want to do to change your life, it’s going to take sacrifice. But it’s also a sacrifice to keep your life exactly the same - only in this case, you are sacrificing your own dreams. For instance, if you currently work in tech, but really want to be an interior designer, you may have to sacrifice some of your free time to build a design portfolio, interview for new roles, and maybe even take a pay cut to get the experience you need for the jobs you really want. However, if you never go after that dream of being an interior designer and instead stay in tech, you are sacrificing your dream for the comfort of what you already know. Both paths lead to sacrifice, so choose the one that actually fulfills you.
Change is scary. Accepting that change is scary is one of the only ways that I can move past the fear. “Yes it’s scary, and I’m doing it anyways,” is one of my favorite mantras. When we acknowledge the fear in front of us, and we still decide to go after what we want, we’re fostering a trust within ourselves. There is nothing better than knowing you have your own back and that the decisions you make are solid, even when they’re scary.
Everything gets easier when you accept that it’s hard. This sounds counterintuitive, right? If we acknowledge it’s hard, then it’s hard. But actually, I think acknowledging that something will take hard work to complete is the first step in making it easier. With this acknowledgement comes the planning, visualizing, and mindset changes that are necessary to do the new thing. Think about it: when the painter decides they want to sell their art, but they know it will be hard to find clients, they start working even harder to find clients. They start posting their art on social media, and use their free time to create a website. They take the pressure off actually selling and focus on the steps to get their art out there into the world for people to see.
So which hard do you choose? The one that keeps you in place, feeling lost and stuck, or the one where you have the life you’ve been dreaming about?
*A special thank you to Colleen-Joy for inspiring this blog post during our interview last week for her podcast InnerLifeSkills.
Are you ready to choose your hard?
Getting unstuck is the only way to get to the life you want. You have to get out of your own way and start doing the scary things while changing your mindset.
I help my clients figure out exactly what it is they want to do, why their fear is holding them back, and how to move past all that.
How Elizabeth let go of the pressure, refocused her business, and put creativity at the center of her services
I first met Elizabeth when she realized she wanted to create a business that reflected her authentic self more accurately. She was over feeling pressured and restless and just wanted something that put her more at ease. We connected after she finished reading my book on creative generalists. Elizabeth identified herself in that book and decided to explore how she might put creativity at the center of her business. We worked together to make a realistic plan for Elizabeth’s many projects, taking the pressure off so she could focus on providing an incredible experience to her clients. Here’s how she did it.
What was your big dream, and what inspired you to go after it?
My big dream was to help amazing people craft their stories and turn them into inspiring TED-like talks.
Did you always have this dream?
Not always, but I do remember exactly when it came to me. I started watching TED talks 15 years ago. Back then, hardly anyone had heard about TED talks. The inspiration, the impact it totally got to me. A seed was planted.
What was one of the first things you did to get you started?
I believe that if you open the door wide open for your dream and make yourself available for it, it will work out. With some ups and downs inevitably, and steady but surely. So opportunities to teach public speaking came to me. I created the chance to work with TED speakers. I started collecting a beautiful series of testimonials from people who had worked with me.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in working toward achieving your dream?
There were definitely moments when my passion was bigger than my discipline to build the backside of the business. So I had occasional worries about cash flow. But I never stopped believing in myself.
What do you wish you would have done differently? What would you warn others about?
I wish now I would have made some bolder moves. Not let my fears keep me from taking steps forward.
Would you say you’ve achieved your big dream yet?
Yes and no. It's important to always have new dreams. Next to my one-on-one program, I will be launching my group program soon, bringing together a group of female leaders who are ready to write their signature keynote talk. One day I want to have my own TV show.
What do you think helped you achieve it?
Not giving up when things get hard. Learning not to try to do everything myself, get help when and where needed.
What’s the best advice you have for others who want to follow their big dreams?
An inspiring vision is crucial to clarify the meaning and purpose of our lives and give us the energy and motivation to follow our dreams and persist. Articulating your big dream (your vision) is the first step in your journey!
More about Elizabeth and her services –http://www.speaker.coach
Elizabeth Van Den Bergh is a Speaker Coach who coaches leaders to speak with confidence and impact. Whether you want to motivate, inspire, or blow your audience away, she’ll make sure your words have the desired effect. Her clients range from passionate experts, ambitious entrepreneurs, to bold leaders at international institutions and large companies. She is also the proud Head Speaker Coach at TEDxFlanders, the largest TEDx event in Belgium. And coaches speakers for TEDxKULeuvenBrussels.
You can find out more about Elizabeth and her services at the website linked above and her new podcast Powerful Presence on Spotify!
Elizabeth’ss favourite quote is:
“I have learned that people will forget what you have said, people will forget what you have done, but they will never forget how you made them feel.”
- Maya Angelou
Elizabeth’s big dream for the world is:
A kinder world. With more love, care, and attention.
If you want more inspiring stories, I’ve got great news for you! This story is part of an interview series, you can find all entries here.
How procrastination masks perfectionism
I’ve wanted to be an author for as long as I can remember. When I started writing a few years ago, I would spend most of the session editing. I would go back and forth, adding words and deleting or rearranging them. It was such a frustrating and cumbersome process. When my articles were done and I finally hit publish, I would go back through and find all the mistakes I had made. I’d ruminate on that for months until the next book idea took hold and I vowed that this time it will be perfect.
With this new book, I have had to stop myself from editing because if I give myself more time to edit, it won’t ever get published. My perfectionism is so pervasive that I have to set clear boundaries or it will take me over.
Are you like that? Do you feel like you have a great idea and then avoid doing it because you want everything about the end result perfect? If you nodded your head yes, then you need to know that this procrastination is simply masking your perfectionism. You can’t just hide and wait till all of the settings and stimuli are perfect before starting, because if you wait, you’ll never start.
Most people who know they are procrastinating on starting or completing a task, know that they’re doing it because going deeper than the surface doesn’t seem to work. They haven’t lost their interest in the work, they just stop because they don’t believe they can fully achieve the end product them have in mind. Sometimes this comes down to the fact that they’re afraid of putting a crappy product out there, and other times (most of the time) it’s because they know how much work (!) has to be done to get that “perfect” end product. Essentially, they’ve set the bar so high, they (unconsciously realize they) can’t reach it at all.
The good news is, you can overcome these tendencies so that you can get unstuck and fulfill the goals you’ve set for yourself without worrying about your inner perfectionist getting in the way.
Set reasonable goals. The first step to ignoring your inner perfectionist is to get clear on what your goals are. If you’re trying to launch a new tennis racket onto the market for people with arthritis, you have to come up with realistic milestones and goals. For instance, a first goal might be hiring an occupational therapist to consult on how arthritis affects the hands and help you identify what an arthritic person would need in a tennis racket. Another goal could be getting that racket to market in the next two or three years. But if you give yourself goals like getting the racket to market in the next six months, you’ll be overwhelmed by the idea of working that hard for that long and end up not doing anything. Your procrastination will be masking your perfectionism.
Stop focusing on other people. They say comparison is the worst form of rejection, and they're right. When you have a good business idea, you can’t focus on what other people are doing. Sure, it helps to know your competitors and how your ideal market sees them, but if you fixate on what they’re doing and compare how you’re fairing, you can set off your perfectionism. Instead of getting things done, meeting deadlines, and achieving goals, you’ll end up stalling, waiting for some way to beat the competition.
Question your fears. If you’re afraid to work hard for a long period of time, or are afraid to put your product into the world, ask yourself why? What is it about this work that is so scary? Maybe you had a parent who told you you weren’t good enough. Maybe you had a boss ridicule you and make you feel small. Whatever it is, once you can identify how and why it’s stopping you, you can overcome it and push through.
It’s okay to make mistakes. If nothing is good enough unless it’s perfect, then nothing is worth doing. Right? Wrong. When you’re gifted with the insight of a great idea, nothing should stand in your way from bringing it to fruition - especially not yourself and the idea that it needs to be perfect. The simple fact that you’ve been given the idea is proof that it needs to be created. In the book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about how if you ignore these sparks of creativity, the muses just bring them to someone else. And if you ignore them long enough, the muse stops offering you anything at all. Thus, if you don’t embrace making mistakes, and nothing is good enough unless it’s perfect, your idea will not be solidified. Your work will never see the light of day and the muses will offer the idea to someone else.
Have self-compassion. We have so much compassion for other people, and yet we are our own harshest critics. Why is that? We need to start fostering self-compassion so that we can overcome our perfectionism. If we’re constantly worried that we’ve done something wrong, we won’t be able to get anything done. When we can accept that mistakes happen and there’s nothing wrong with that, we can finally follow your creativity.
Perfectionism is a tough trait to overcome, but it is possible, especially when we can identify what fuels it. We have to learn how to break the chain, create reasonable goals, focus on ourselves, and question our fears. If we don’t, we won’t ever learn to be free.
Ready to trade in your perfectionism for productivity?
It can be so hard to overcome our perfectionism as it’s usually a product of our upbringing and response to our experiences throughout life.
But it can - and should - be done! Certainly with the help of an experienced coach.
Generalist Wisdom Part 1: Specialists Learn Everything,Generalists Learn Everything That Is Useful
As early as our teens, we’re expected to pick a particular career path. Careers days start as early as 4th grade nowadays, with many kids exclamating the classics that they’ll be nurses, teachers, or firefighters, or not knowing what they want to do at all! Still, we insist on starting the decision game at that young age. And for generalists and creative types, it’s all downhill from there.
In the past, like our parents’ generations, you picked one career and you kept going your entire working life. Every class you took in college or post-graduate certification was meant to further that career, help you climb the corporate ladder, and set you up for an easy retirement.
There have always been outliers to this, of course. People who followed one path and then jumped to the next when they decided to learn something new. But it really wasn’t until the last decade - when being a generalist became super popular - that hiring managers are finally seeing the benefit to having generalists on the team.
The difference between a specialist and a generalist is that specialists want to know everything about a single subject, but generalists want to know everything that is USEFUL about a particular subject. For instance, this can be seen clearly in the medical field. The neurosurgeon learns everything there is to know about the brain, nervous systems, and the spine. But a general surgeon must learn about several different areas of the body. Their “specialized” knowledge is specific to be useful for them to perform surgery in that particular area. They won’t know everything there is to know about neurosurgery, but they’ll know enough to help if needed.
Another great example of this is the music teacher vs. violin professor. A music teacher has a generalized understanding of musical instruments, music theory, and maybe plays a few instruments well - not spectacularly, but good enough to teach students about music. The violin professor, on the other hand, has spent years learning everything there is to know about their instrument, how to play a vast amount of music, how to teach others to play the violin, and while they might know how to play another instrument, they’d never sacrifice their violin technique for it.
There are definite pros and cons to being either a specialist or a generalist. Generalists are open to challenges, usually end up in leadership roles, and enjoy thinking outside the box. Specialists, though, usually have less competition for jobs, are better equipped for changes in their field, and sometimes receive higher salaries.
I know I might be biased, but I definitely think the pros tip toward the generalists just a little bit more 🤓. So, what can you learn from generalists to help your career and businesses?
Increased skill sets. Because generalists tend to learn everything useful about a particular subject, and end up doing this with a lot of subjects, they have various skill sets. Specialists, on the other hand, usually have advanced knowledge in their area of expertise, but they don’t have wide-ranging experience in other areas. Instead of only learning about your particular field, you should become familiar with tangential areas of your field, expanding your skill sets in the process, which can make you both indispensable for your current role but also broaden your skills and knowledge in future ones.
Learn to multiproject™ better. Generalists usually have an easier time multiprojecting™ (not in the moment, but with interests!) because of their ability to hop from one thing to the next. They aren’t limited by the box of a specialized field, which gives them a level of comfort when transitioning from topic to topic. Now, usually, I caution my clients on multitasking projects too much. The sweet spot for most generalists is between 3 to 5 at any given time. You shouldn’t burn yourself out trying to do too much at once (projects and ideas have a way of nagging at you until you do something with them anyway, so they’re not about to go anywhere). But if you notice you’re a bit uncomfortable switching gears or meeting various goals, learning to multitask - or habit stack as some researchers have called it - you can get more done without overwhelming yourself.
Develop critical thinking and collaborative skills. In most companies, specialists tend to either work with other specialists or in solitary environments. This robs specialists of the ability to work as a team with people who have different viewpoints, which can impede their ability to foster critical thinking. Alternatively, generalists usually work in big groups of people from all sorts of different fields and roles. This gives them the ability to talk to different people, hear different ideas, and incorporate various voices into the work, which can provide better, more sophisticated problem-solving to a project.
Whether you are a specialist or a generalist, there is so much we can learn from one another to improve our current role or help us bring a new business to fruition. By incorporating more of the generalist’s traits into your work, though, you’ll explore and grow necessary skills that can help you positively impact your workplace.
Not sure if you’re a specialist or a generalist?
We’ve been so conditioned to follow the specialist route that it can be confusing to discover you might be a generalist.
By working together, we can figure out which category you fall into and how to leverage that style to improve your career.
How Yamille used art therapy to recover from burnout and decided to create spaces for other women to make art
When I met Yamille, she had just gone through severe burnout from her corporate role. She had realized she wanted a different professional life filled with creativity, but wasn’t sure how to make it happen and was paralyzed by a fear of failure. Together, we worked through those blocks and Yamille learned that even if she stumbled on the path to the life she really wanted, she was still learning and getting one step closer to her goals. Since then, she’s started her own business in a field she loves, became a certified art therapy coach, healed her burnout, and squashed her fear of failure. Here’s how she did it.
What was your big dream, and what inspired you to go after it?
My big dream was to be an artist who facilitates and promotes the use of creative expression (art making) as a well-being tool for women to prevent burnout and live a life full of energy and enthusiasm. I would love to have several "ateliers" where women can make art on a regular basis and are helped by a community of experts in the field of art therapy.
I got inspired to go after this dream when I experienced firsthand the well-being power of art, especially to recover from burnout.
Did you always have this dream?
Not always, but I've certainly been thinking about it for a long time but I never dared to change until my burn-out kind of forced me to.
I never thought I was good enough at painting, drawing, dancing, ... or that I could make a living out of it. Moreover, I didn't find it that meaningful to create something "pretty" to be liked and judged by others. These paradigms made me give up on my artistic talents until I discovered and experienced doing art in a completely different way following a Swedish painting methodology that helped me let go of my "logic brain" and let my "artist child" express itself. I learned to enjoy the creative process and not become fixated on my performance or the result.
Over the years I have experienced the many benefits of art, especially during my recovery from burn-out, I was amazed by how much it helped me. This further convinced me to go for my big dream!
What was one of the first things you did to get you started?
I looked for guidance to "put the pieces of the puzzle" together that is how I started the coaching sessions with Murielle, to get clarity, gain confidence and have a sparring partner that could understand and guide a creative person like me in my situation.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in working toward achieving your dream?
The fear of failing was my biggest challenge. I grew up in a culture where failing is not well received, I was afraid of being a "loser", and on top of that my confidence was severely undermined by my burn-out where my body "failed" and I just couldn't perform anymore. I realized that this fear was pulling me back, that things that I wanted to do or test would take longer or won't happen, it was auto-sabotage. It was a process to learn again to trust myself and gain confidence in my abilities, and the coaching sessions with Murielle helped me to acknowledge this and other paradigms I had to overcome to move forward.
What do you wish you would have done differently? What would you warn others about?
I could have wished to start earlier, but I wasn't ready. So I wouldn't have done anything differently, because every experience thought me something and helped me in a certain way, it was a growth process (it is still).
I will warn people about rushing things up, and about not taking the proper time to build their vision and learn from each step of their journey. Of course, dreams only come true when we act, so this is not an excuse for procrastination.
Would you say you’ve achieved your big dream yet?
I'm living my life dream during this journey towards my vision. My "Energy-boosting painting workshop for moms" is a big milestone! I'm so proud of myself, I will be doing many more milestones, trying, succeeding, failing, and learning, all worth it because it's all part of my big dream.
What do you think helped you achieve it?
My burnout experience actually helped to make big changes in my life, including my profession. It drove me to ask for guidance to get clarity about my dream and gain confidence that I could make it happen, this was one of the biggest gifts I received during my coaching sessions with Murielle.
What’s the best advice you have for others who want to follow their big dreams?
An inspiring vision is crucial to clarify the meaning and purpose of our lives and give us the energy and motivation to follow our dreams and persist. Articulating your big dream (your vision) is the first step in your journey!
More about Yamille and her Energy Boosting Painting for Workshop for Moms –www.yamillemelendez.art
“I kindly invite all moms that feel frequently tired, stressed, and/or overwhelmed to my energy-boosting painting workshop where they will learn tools based on proven creative methodologies to help them tap into their vast inner energy and avoid burn-out.” - Yamille
Yamille Melendez is a multi-passionate artist, creative, and coach. She helps moms unlock the well-being power of art so they can live a life full of energy, creativity, and enthusiasm.
She made the decision to transition from a life that was full of burnout and overwhelm to one filled with art, which she uses to process her emotions and thoughts so she can better understand herself. While recovering from burnout, Yamille tried, tested, and studied several different creative tools and methodologies that not only helped her get her energy back, but also helped her discover a better, stronger version of herself. Healing herslef with art made her see how much she wanted to help other tired moms gain energy and avoid burnout using art. Now she is living her dream while continuing to pursue it and hopes to share her message with the world.
Yamille’s favourite quote is:
“Creativity is intelligence having fun!”
- Albert Einstein
Yamille’s big dream for the world is:
A world where love, creativity, well-being, and happiness are more sought after than performance, prizes, or money.
If you want more inspiring stories, I’ve got great news for you! This story is part of an interview series, you can find all entries here.
Now vs. the future: how to do one thing now vs. wanting to do all the things
Most people overestimate what they can do in short periods but underestimate what they can do in long periods of time.
Think about it, when you decide to do something, you always think you can get a dozen things done in a really short period of time. Take the new entrepreneur who wants to start a lifestyle blog. They’ll give themselves some sort of short deadline and think they can put a whole website together, start a TikTok and Instagram, get a few pieces of content out on a few platforms, and start marketing themselves. But then if they have a six-month deadline, they’ll think it’s too far into the future, that they have plenty of time, procrastinate on getting things done, and end up wasting time or even not getting things done at all.
Neither is a particularly good way of working and both styles can end up crashing and burning - the blog never starting, the entrepreneur getting bored, and something else “more” interesting catching their interest.
Obviously, this isn’t a great way to start, or do, anything, especially not for an entrepreneur as it leaves us open to missed opportunities and simultaneous burnout and boredom. The best, most successful entrepreneurs are the ones who know how to do more than one thing without wanting to do everything (right now), and can give themselves realistic timelines and tasks to get things done.
1. Never choose forever, just what’s in the moment. When you have an idea for a business or a way to change your life, you have to give yourself a realistic timeline and action list.
In the case of the new blogger, doing a small amount of research on website building and digital marketing techniques could help them identify just how long it takes to get a cohesive, working, and aesthetic website together, while also getting their name out there and drumming up buzz for their work. If they chose a deadline farther in the future - or decided on some arbitrary deadline - it may make them lose interest.
The goal is to keep interest high and get the necessary work done as quickly as possible and without forgetting anything.
2. You can do everything, but you can’t do everything right now. Another aspect of staying engaged is recognizing that you can do everything. Every idea that pops into your head comes from some sort of intuition and guidance. They should be followed, even if just to see how they wouldn’t work in this business or new reality. However, there is a time and place for each. You can do everything, but you can’t do everything all at once.
For the blogger in our example, they may want to set up the website, get out a new blog, create a few social media posts, set up a LinkedIn referral program, design a reel cover on Canva, and organize Quickbooks for the inevitable UGC or influencer partnerships she believes are coming their way. While all those things are great and necessary to the success of their new business, there is no need to do them all at once. Instead, the entrepreneur should decide on a timeline and figure out what steps need to be taken on day one. If it were me, I’d focus on getting the website and social media set up, as well as social media teezer and my first blog. Once that’s gone out, I’d start a content calendar, and decide on branding, and my main message. From there, I’d work on the administrative things or wait until my first partnership before getting them created so that I knew exactly what to create. Of course, the main focus I would always have is to sell and make sure I reach my ideal clients or users.
There is a time and place for everything, but if we get caught up in getting everything done, we’ll never get anything done. Instead, we have to focus on what to do now, in this moment, and then move forward from there.
Constantly worried about all the things you have to do?
It can be difficult to identify what needs to be done now, versus what can be done later - especially when we’re excited about a new idea or business.
As a career and business coach, I’ve started working with entrepreneurs who are looking to excel in their target market space. If you have a business idea, don’t know where to start, and need someone to chat with, I’d love to help.