There are at least 100 of you NOT doing what you wish you were doing right now. You’re held back by a lot of things: money, location, obligations, job pressures. But I’m going to bet this: I’m going to bet that, if you really want to do this next thing you’re thinking about doing, that you can come up with a way to be creative. Here’s the goal: start a project.
Small Projects Start Bigger Things
If your goal is to make media for big companies, can you start by making a promo reel of your existing stuff? Can you start working on the media kit that you’ll want to hand prospective customers? Start somewhere. Make it happen.
If you’re planning to switch careers, have you tidied up your resume? Have you build a good solid profile over at LinkedIN? Have you solicited your friends for a recommendation? (Hint: pick people who can speak intelligently on your past business experience.)
Momentum Is the Key
On my projects, I’ve started very small steps that will get me motivated to move forward on them. I wrote out the table of contents for my book two days ago (and summarily corrupted the file, so I can do it again). I’ve got an organizer/GTD program rolling that broke everything I plan to do into steps. Every time I check off a step, the program serves up the next step. (Mac users, the program is LifeShaker.)
Momentum is the key to moving your projects forward and making your goals real.
Include Others
Don’t necessarily rush out and make business partners, but ask your friends for advice and ideas. Give them the starting points of your bigger ideas, and see if they have suggestions to make them better. I do this. ( Funny, because I’ve written about it here and a year before that here).
Having a few folks to bounce your ideas off is a good thing.
CAUTION: Don’t always just go with what they say. Sometimes, your advisory group will come up with something almost unanimously, and you’ll feel in your gut that they’ve made a good point, but that your idea is still the best. Don’t just chuck your idea. Don’t chuck their advice, but take a look at both, weigh it YOURSELF, and see what you want to do next.
It’s All About You
The world is not going to come along and give you these things you’re dreaming about. You have to start somewhere, work at it, and get things moving forward. No one is ever handed a magical future. And the rare exceptions to that statement? Usually that future crumbles fairly quickly. For the rest of us, we work at it. And you will, too. But “work at it” means starting and that means you have to find your way in. Try starting a project.
What do you think?
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Photo Credit, aussiegall