Episode 167: How to Pick Your Next Big Project
It’s springtime! We tend to get excited about what’s possible at this time of year and with that fresh-start mentality come some hick ups.
Maybe you start thinking about the 45 different things you’d actually really like to start. Today, I want to give you concrete steps you can take to pick your next big project so that you know your own track and you’re doing something that’s going to push your life forward.
Picking your next big project
Maybe you want to launch a podcast. Maybe you want to write a book. Maybe you want to launch a fundraising campaign.
Maybe you want to do something big in your business that will add revenue, and you don’t know what that is. Now you’re staring at this list, going, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do,” and so you pull up Netflix or decide to redo your Sales Page … again.
Ripple effect
When you look at your list, ask yourself what will cause a ripple effect. That’s a big thing to say, so let’s dig into it. Typically, when you don’t know what to do next you’ll back to what you feel comfortable with. That might look like redoing your sales page. But that’s not nearly as powerful and will not have the ripple effect that says getting on the phone with a potential client would or jumping into networking groups where clients are.
You might have had this feeling before. (I know I have.) When you don’t know where your next customer or client is coming from, you start to get nervous. You don’t know how to affect your revenue. So, what do we do? We go back to what makes us comfortable.
What your next goal will be will depend on what type of business you’re in, but can you see that if you actually sell at that moment, if you actually start moving the business forward, it will have a massive ripple effect on the rest of your life?
The best part is that when you choose a project that will have a ripple effect on the rest of your life, you will understand more about who you are and how you’re showing up in the world. Everything starts to shift.
You start to move the business forward by actually starting to sell or increase your client base or increase your revenue, and all of a sudden you have a better understanding of your strength. You have a better understanding Of how your business supports other people. (That’s when you can go back to tweak your Sales Page!)
Choosing the project
If you’re still having a hard time deciding on what that project should be, I want you to close your eyes and picture yourself six months from now on a balcony in…Tuscany. You did it.
What would you have had to do to get there? Who do you have to be?
It's probably not answering emails. It's probably not hanging out on social media until you're too tired, and you can't even put your phone down because you're falling asleep.
Will it be difficult?
Take a look at your to-do list for the project that will cause that ripple effect. Is it going to be hard?
I just want you to pick what's next. I think sometimes what can happen to us is we get stuck in some weird vortex where we think the next thing we choose is the only thing we're ever going to choose again.
You get to decide not only what you do right now but you get to decide if this project needs to pivot. You get to decide if it needs to get bigger, and you get to decide how you spend every single day while you're working on this project.
You need to be engaged and happy, and excited about what you're producing.
When we get hit with the unsexy tasks or the parts that make us nervous, we can step back and recognize that we chose to do this.
Listen: The Truth About Motivation (and Why it Feels Mysterious)
Time and money
You chose to do it because you're working for something bigger, but as you're working towards that, something bigger, all of this is your time. All of this belongs to you and you get to choose how you use it today. We have money and time confused, we think there's always going to be tomorrow and we feel like there's never going to be enough money.
We are not promised tomorrow. Time is our only finite resource, and money can always be generated. Money is infinite.
Now that you've chosen this next project, now that you get the ripple effect idea, now that you know it's got to make your socks roll up and down and you're in it -- you want to remember how you choose to spend this day.
How you choose to check these items off your list is everything, because right now, this is the only moment we have.
Now, this is the only moment we have when you decide to choose this project. When you decide to change your life by causing a ripple effect in everything that you do, this moment right now is the only moment in which you can take action. This is when you choose the project that you know will really make a difference, even if it scares you a little bit at this moment right now, don't squander it, you do not get it back.
Let’s get to it!
