Do you have an idea? Great! Now what?

Can you believe that, in less than ONE YEAR, I was able to plan and accomplish:

• Getting married (3 months to plan 2 ceremonies and a bachelorette party, on a tight budget)
• Studying and passing the TOEFL English test
• Applying and getting accepted into a Canadian University for a Marketing Management Diploma
• Applying and getting my student visa for Canada
• Moving to Canada and finding a place to live

…LESS THAN A YEAR!?

Yup! Looking back it astounds me the amount of effort it took. I didn’t even have any organization tools other than a simple to-do list.

Of course, I had many pretty visualizations and inspirational Pinterest boards, but all that wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t been clear on what I wanted and why:

“To live in Vancouver, the best city in the world, because I wanted a better quality of life, to get out of the 24/7 paranoia that was living in Venezuela. I wanted to be safe and happy.”

Looking back at the time, even one of those tasks sounds overwhelming to me, which leads me to consider how I was able to deal with so many of them at the same time.

Dealing with overwhelming projects

Starting a new idea might seem intimidating or even scary at first, and it’s understandable, the whole process is chaotic and confusing.

Projects can trigger an overwhelming emotion which is a stress response that happens when you don’t feel in control of your workload and you’re uncertain of what the result might be; this is normal.

A few months ago, my mom’s website went down. I jumped to my server’s support for help and they told me the WordPress theme had an error and they had to delete it.

My mind was racing at this point. I kept thinking: “omg, what if all her content is gone”, “I need to start over”, “this is going to take ages”, almost on a loop.

I imagined telling my mom: “I’m sorry, your website is dead”. I felt this knot in my stomach as if I already failed.

But then I decided to do the rational thing, so I installed a new theme and voila! It only took 5 minutes to sort out. It even looked better than before!

After that was done, I couldn’t believe I was getting so worked up by something that it turned out to be a simple fix.

Truth is, when you put the gears in motion as you start making small decisions and take action, you will gain the momentum that will act as a compound effect of success.

It’s never going to be as bad as you think.

Breaking abstract ideas down

Back to you: What do you want to accomplish? What’s the idea?

Your idea may be as simple as creating a new photography account on Instagram, as big as managing a fully functioning vineyard in Tuscany, or maybe something in between.

First of all, you need to define what do DONE and GOOD ENOUGH actually mean. How would you know if your project is DONE?

By knowing what DONE means you’ll be able to realistically assess everything that will fall on your plate.

Some projects may be subjective

Let’s say I wanted to compile a playlist on Spotify to help my audience focus. This is a subjective project because it would be based on my personal tastes and opinions on what genres are good for concentration.

So how would I know when the playlist is finished?

I would need to list out clear-cut criteria that would help me understand what DONE is:

• The playlist must be 2 hours long.
• The songs must have a slow tempo of 60 to 80 bpm (beats per minute).
• The music must not have lyrics.
• The music must be easy to listen.

You will procrastinate less when working on concrete tasks, rather than ones which require abstract thinking.

What results are you expecting to get?

My favourite way to find out all the different pieces in the puzzle is by drawing a mindmap or listing out the things that need to happen in order for me to complete a goal, starting with the end in mind.

I always try to have reasonable outcomes by keeping in mind what I can accomplish within my limitations.

Keep in mind, you DON’T need to know all the details.

Why do you want to do this thought?

One of the most important aspects of starting any project is understanding your WHY.

Our purpose creates our reality, is the force that’s gonna make us do the hard work. It’s the intrinsic reward that helps us get where we want to go. It’s what motivates us.

Answer these questions to gain clarity on your WHY:

• What will it cost me if I don’t take action?
• What will I gain if I take action?
• How will this impact me today and in the long run?

Create an action plan

Whatever you think you can obtain is a result of what you know today.

For each outcome you listed, establish the very first action to take and add it to your calendar, keeping in mind your schedule constraints and commitments.

Don’t overanalyze this part.

When you start your journey you will discover all the lessons you need #trusttheprocess.

If you are looking for more guidance on how to advance your projects further, I’m available for 1-hour consultations.

Here’s a list of verbs that could trigger next actions:

Things to keep in mind

Finishing a project may be a struggle some people and if you have the habit of starting projects without finishing this could be helpful:

• Make your WHY visible: When the energy and excitement that you had at the beginning starts fading away, it’s a symptom that you are forgetting about your vision. Surround yourself with things that remind you of your end goal and why is it important.
• Celebrate your progress: Create a DONE list and look how far you’ve come, you have accomplished a lot. Keep going!
• Set yourself up to win: List out the things that you need to do so you can enjoy the process. This will help you add variety to your work so you don’t get bored.
• Don’t be perfect: Throw the idea of perfection out the window. There’s no need to get it all done right the first time, you can always improve it later.
• Stay in the moment: Focus on what’s going on right now in the project. Don’t spend too much time planning or analyzing everything that you can’t control, otherwise, you might feel overwhelmed.
• Do what you can with what you have: Some days are going to feel amazing, other days we won’t feel like showing up, and when we feel that struggle it’s important not to beat ourselves up for it. You don’t need to accomplish everything in one day.
• Identify what’s blocking you: Find an appropriate solution so you go through your tasks more mindfully, this way you are more likely to avoid procrastinating or getting distracted.

Get unblocked. If you are looking for more guidance or accountability on how to advance your projects further, I’m available for 1-hour consultations. Click here to book a session with me.