Episode 46: How To Choose Your Next Project

So last week I was in a Facebook Group with some of my colleagues and one of the women in our group posted asking for help on how to choose her next project.

It was a beautiful post about how many things she wants to accomplish, how many different ideas she has…

She wants to launch a course, write a book, start a podcast, announce a YouTube channel, re-do her website…oh, and have a life at the same time.

It was so great. So honest, so real and so frustrating. Have you ever had a moment like that? It’s like all of a sudden all of your ambition is back to do your next project and you’re feeling amazing…

But the list gets long. And I mean, really long.

And suddenly you’re suffering from that awful little bug we call analysis paralysis.

It’s horrible.

And we tend to find ourselves face-to-face with moments like that when we’re comparing our beginning to someone else’s middle, or even to their almost-finish line. You know? Like we can look at someone we absolutely love and admire and see all the things they have…

And for this conversation, I’ll be talking about business goals, but it can absolutely be applied to personal goals as well – like ticking off someone else’s life accomplishments: a great job, a marriage, a house, the kids, great friends, etc.

In business, we see the best-selling book, the podcast, the sexy website, the great YouTube channel, the awesome following on social media, the list of raving fans, and in my industry, the seminars and conferences.

But today, I want to debunk the myth that all of that happens at once. It just doesn’t. I promise. And in fact, thinking that it does, or trying to accomplish your dreams that way, will leave you in a world of hurt, frustration, and that feeling like you’re running on a hamster wheel.

And right now, we’re at a moment in this crazy year where it feels like we’re waiting for what’s next, you know?

Will there be more quarantines? Maybe.

Will America continue to struggle with it’s internal fighting? Yeah, probably.

Will the economy rebound? Maybe.

Will you know what’s going to happen by lunchtime tomorrow? Probably not.

But, what you do have absolute control over, is what you choose to do…next.

Not even what you choose to do by tomorrow, but rather, what you choose to do right after you’re done listening to this podcast.

Are you going to hop in the shower?

Make that call you know you need to make?

Pour yourself another cup of coffee?

Sit down and pull out your phone and get sucked into the vortex of nothingness that feels like connection?

Or figure out the NEXT project you’re going to concentrate on for the next two weeks and then get to work on the first thing you need to accomplish to make that happen.

Oooh…did you feel the difference in that?

The difference between success and failure isn’t dramatic.

The difference between success and failure is actually, tiny. At least, it’s tiny in the moment. In the moment when you choose to focus on all the initiatives you haven’t started yet, or all the different ways you feel like you’re falling behind…

Or, the moment when you choose to take the one next step that matters most. The one that will move your #1 goal forward.

Taking that step? That usually pretty small step, that’s everything.

When you decide to take control of the many options in front of you, and choose just ONE to focus on…

Oh sister…that’s when the magic starts to happen and the overwhelm disappears.

But how do you actually do that?

I’ll lay out the 4 steps you’ll need to take to know that you’re choosing the best next project, for you.

Pop in those earphones and let’s get to it!

Don’t miss last week’s Episode 45: Feeling Good