I’ve always considered myself a highly creative idea person and thus I never have any shortage of ideas for new projects to start, goals to pursue, and dreams to chase.
My brain is constantly coming up with ideas that would be “fun to try”. Ideas like “start a book club” “create a community for women travelers pursuing personal development”, “learn photography”, “become a digital nomad and travel around the world” and “write a book”. Ideas for the kind of person I want to be, the skills I want to develop, the things I want to create, and the life I want to live.
The problem generally comes into play when its time to actually put those ideas into action. How do I take these swirling magical thoughts and turn them into a tangible reality? How do I go from thoughts to things? How do I take these ideas and come up with a plan to make them actually happen?
This problem usually takes two different forms. One is, I have LITERALLY no idea what in the world I would do. This is when I am coming up completely blank. Like no fricking clue what type of action or steps I could take to birth this idea fetus into a beautiful healthy baby.
Then there is the other form which I call analysis paralysis. When there seems to be 1000 different directions I could take and I don’t know where to start. I don’t know how to narrow it down or take the seemingly endless possibilities to form a legitimate plan of action. This leads to overwhelm and lack of clarity and focus.
These two forms ultimately result in the same problem. I feel stuck. I don’t know what to do. I start working on one task only to spend most of my time wondering “is this really what I should be focusing on?”. I spend more time trying to decide what to do than actually taking any meaningful action. I feel like I’m constantly spinning my wheels, stopping and starting and lacking any true forward momentum.
Can you relate to any of this? Have you ever had this amazing idea for a project you wanted to start or a goal you want to pursue only to feel stuck on how to actually make it happen. Have you ever felt so completely overwhelmed by all the things you could do that you end up not doing anything ? That you have no idea where to start or how to take meaningful steps towards your goal?
If so, you are in luck because I have developed a three step system for dealing with this problem.
Step one: Realize that everything is figureoutable and your ignorance is a choice
This first step is inspired by Marie Forleo and her latest book titled Everything is Figureoutable which I highly recommend. This is where the mindset shift takes place. It is also where I am going to give you some tough love.
When you say to yourself “I don’t know what to do or where to start”… this is just an excuse to stay stuck.
What I mean by an excuse is that by hiding out under that thought of “I don’t know what to do” we give ourselves a reason to do nothing. We let ourselves off the hook for not making any progress towards our goals.
I don’t want to deny the truth behind that statement- it is very possible that at this moment in time you are not sure what to do next. That is a very real phenomenon. Whenever we are doing something we’ve never done before its normal to come up against obstacles where we are unsure how to move forward.
But when we allow ourselves to stay stuck there and continue to feed ourselves the line of “I just don’t know what to do”. That’s when it becomes a problem. When we use our current ignorance as a reason to let out a big sigh and watch Netflix instead of figuring it out…. that is when it becomes an excuse that is hindering our forward motion.
Yes, maybe you don’t know what to do…. YET, but when we stop there we are letting our excuses win.
As Donny Miller said ” In this age of information, ignorance is a choice.”
So, instead of allowing yourself to hang out in this disempowering place of stuckness… I challenge you to reframe this.
Instead of saying “I don’t know what to do.” Ask yourself a question. “How could I figure out what to do?” or “Who could I talk to who would know what to do?” or “Who could help me figure this out?”
Asking yourself questions allows you to get into solution mode instead of endlessly lamenting about your problem.
Remember: staying stuck and ignorant is a choice. I am challenging you to choose differently.
Step two: Make a possibilities list
**This is a concept from Rachel Hollis’ book Girl Stop Apologizing. It is also something she talks about in her “Made for More” documentary on Amazon. I recommend checking out both of em.
A possibilities list is essentially a brainstorming tool you can use to get yourself unstuck. To get started with a possibilities list, open your computer up to google and get out a blank piece of paper and pen.
First, you need an idea of what is your desired result. What is the thing you are trying to figure out? You keep saying “I don’t know what to do next” But what is the overall result you are trying to get to? Are you trying to build a coaching business, monetize your blog, find a way to travel around the world full time? Get a sense of what result you are aiming for to give yourself some context.
Then at the top of your blank piece of paper start with a question or two. “What are all the things I could do to…. (get to your desired result)?” Sometimes it helps to make the specific question a little narrower than the actual desired result because the desired result seems too big.
For example, when I was trying to figure out how to build my coaching business the question I started with was “what are all the things I can do to sign one-on-one coaching clients?” I knew that signing one-on-one clients was the life blood of building an online coaching business. So that is where I started.
Pick your question- write it clearly at the top of your blank page and then write down literally anything that pops into your head. This is a free for all brainstorm. No idea is too wild, out there or too small.
Your ideas can literally be phrases like “figure out how to…” or “look up ….” or “google….”.
For example when I was making my possibilities list about becoming a digital nomad. I started with this question:
“What are all the things I could do to become a digital nomad?”
My list started off like this….
- Figure out what kinds of jobs exist for digital nomads
- Talk to my friend about what she did to work remotely
- Think about what skills I could use remotely
- Join FB groups for digital nomads and ask them the questions about what they do to make money online
- Take a look at finances and determine various expenses to create some sort of budget or goal for how much I would need to make per month
- Look up the cost of living in different cities
- Figure out what to do about health insurance
- Figure out what to do about a cell phone plan
Notice how, at this point, I essentially knew nothing about becoming a digital nomad, so all of my ideas involved talking to someone, googling something, looking something up, asking more questions, etc. And that’s ok. This is usually how it starts.
Then I got to a place where I felt stuck and needed more information to actually come up with more ideas. This is the point where you turn to google.
The idea is to do some highly targeted google searches at this point. You don’t want to start off with google, because you will likely get sucked into a rabbit hole.
Start off with your blank piece of paper, and once you get stuck, use google to answer the highly specific questions you have created.
Start with your first “figure out” and google whatever phrase comes after that. So continuing with my example the first thing I googled was “jobs for digital nomads”.
I found a list of several different remote job portals I could search through later. I also found that teaching English online and freelance writing specifically appealed to me and so I added these to my possibilities list.
- Look into teaching English online
- Look into freelance writing.
- Look through remote job portals – Indeed, Virtual Vocations, We Work Remotely, Flex Jobs.
The purpose of this part isn’t to actually start doing any of these tasks– again be sure not to get sucked into google. The point is to create a list of all the things you could do to move forward with your goal.
Once you have a nice sized possibilities list (try to fill up at least the whole piece of paper with ideas) its time for your next step.
Step three: Narrow it down
During this step it is important to remember that not all ideas are created equal. While some ideas seem like fun or easy things to do, not all of these ideas will actually move the needle to get you closer to your goal.
So now with your possibilities list in hand I want you to ask yourself this question.
“ Which of these will really move the needle in getting me closer to my desired result of xyz?”.
Then look at your possibilities list through this perspective. It is very likely that one or two of the ideas on the paper will really jump out at you at this point. This is what you should focus on next.
Be honest with yourself here, the point of this isn’t to choose the easiest task on the list. The point is to choose the highest yield tasks. The things that are truly most likely to bring you closer to the result.
For my digital nomad list, I knew the most important thing to do was to figure out a source of remote income. In order to really make my dreams of digital nomading a reality, I needed to find a way to make money online. Pretty simple huh?
Since, I already had my TEFL certification, the most promising next step was to look into teaching English online. I decided to google how to land a job teaching English online, look into salary, etc. and also talk to my friend who had already done just that. Those were my next two steps to focus on.
As you continue to research and continue to take action, more and more next steps will come up. Take them one at a time as they come up and if you ever get overwhelmed or stuck again. Go back to step 2 and repeat from where you are.
And that’s it. This method is the best way I know of to turn your ideas into action. To actually create the reality that you are dreaming of.
So next time you feel stuck or tell yourself that “you don’t know what to do”, I want you to be realllllly honest with yourself. Are you really stuck? Or are you just not trying to figure it out?
Maybe you don’t know what to do… yet. But believe me you are just one possibilities list and google search away from creating a beautiful action plan and revving yourself into forward motion.
Sometimes it does help to have some guidance along this process- and that is where coaching comes into play. Helping people create actionable plans to reach their dreams (and stick to them) is something I love doing as a coach and would love to help you with this as well. So if having a guide help you through this process sounds appealing to you then sign up for a free 60 minute discovery call with me and we can see how I can help you along this path.
Chasing your dreams and goals isn’t easy. But it is doable.
This post got me pregnant with so many idea fetuses!