How often do you get overwhelmed just thinking about getting something significant done?
Whether you’re writing a book that you’ve always dreamed of publishing or getting a business off the ground – it’s so easy to get stuck with the feeling of overwhelming looking at the mountain in front of you.
When you look at the peak or end result, you feel discouraged by how many steps you’ve got to take to get there.
Especially when it’s something that’s really meaningful to you!
In the process of overwhelm, naturally, you begin losing motivation and just feel like giving up. When this happens, I invite you to retrain your thinking.
Retrain yourself instead to learn the skill of breaking down your goal into smaller actionable steps.
An analogy would be that of driving at night. You can only see as far as the headlights can go and you can’t see or predict the entire journey. It all reveals itself as you move forward.
I recommend separating your decision making from your action steps, so you can fully focus on the next step without any distraction.
Let’s take an example, suppose you wanted to create an online course. Here are the steps you might take:
Example Goal: Create an online course
Step 1. Choose your course topic
Step 2. Write down the course outline
Step 3. Create the course content
Step 4. Bring your course online
Step 5. Market your course
Step 6. Improve your course through feedback
If you get stuck with any of these steps, break it down further into subtasks. For instance, Step 1, could be broken down as:
Step 1. Choose your course topic
Sub-step 1. Brainstorm ideas for subjects that you are already knowledgable or want to learn about
Sub-step 2. Research the topic if there are any areas you need to clarify
Sub-step 3. Make a list of possible topics
Sub-step 4. Ask friends, family or do research on your topic of interest to understand the demand
Sub-step 5. Select your topic
This was an example of how you might break down a goal or project into smaller actionable steps.
Think about ways you might approach your goal and how you might do the same. It’s a simple but effective way to approach any large, scary goal.
