The ONE Next Step

If you’d like to get a big juicy project moving forward and have a great time doing it, today is your lucky day. Your first step is to bring to mind that project that sits incomplete but nagging the corners of your mind daily. Or maybe it’s the project you know you should begin but it feels too hard, too big or that you’re not big enough for it. In order to have this article mean more than a nice five minute break from your work, it’s better if you play this process (that I’m about to take you through) with a project that you feel emotional connection to (doesn’t matter if you feel positive or negative about it). Got something in mind? Good. Now clarify the emotions attached to this project. In the last few months (ok, maybe longer!), I’ve known that my desktop Mac has been limping along. It’s painfully slow. I’ve got too much stuff on it and I don’t create the time to do the housekeeping it needs. All the software is outdated, too. I dreaded buying a new Mac. Why? Because it still means I want to clean stuff off the old machine before transferring all my data to the new machine. It means giving up my computer while the transfer of information happens. I was in total resistance. The emotions connected to this were dread, fear and frustration. What’s the best outcome you can imagine for this project? Now I want you to think about your project being done. Imagine everything went smooth. The outcome exceeded your expectations. It came together so much easier than you imagined. What emotions would you feel? Stay locked onto that vision while we move forward here. What’s the very first step that you’d need to take to knock the project out of the ballpark? Notice I said just one step. Often when I ask people in business to clarify their next step they tell me some huge item like, “Redo my website.” That’s 5000 steps! What is the ONE step that would get the ball rolling on the website makeover? It might be calling a colleague to get a referral. Or blocking out one hour to write the copy. A few weeks ago I was on a road trip with my mate and I was talking about getting my new iMac. My mate said, “Why don’t you just call your stepdad and see what machine you need to buy.” I sighed with resistance. But in spite of my resistance, I dialed my personal Mac guru’s number. He told me that he’d go online and pick out the new machine I should get and where I should buy it. The next day, the email with the info was in my inbox. The machine was A LOT cheaper than I expected. Money wasn’t a factor in me moving forward but now I was a little bit more excited to take the next step. I chose the 27” screen and that got me even more excited! I pressed the BUY button and felt relieved. Do you see how the first step of calling my stepdad put everything into motion? Notice how it all came together easily? The next thing that happened was him shipping me (from another state) all the stuff I needed for him to transfer all my data remotely. He totally dialed me in. Are you willing to take that one step today? Here’s the beauty of taking just one action step for the thing you resist: • It creates momentum.
• It releases some of the resistance you may feel.
• It creates the opening for the next step to appear.
• Your Inner Guidance will kick in with solutions and creativity in abundance. Wouldn’t it feel good to feel like you’re in charge of your project rather than it feeling out of your control or dreadful? My new computer is so pretty. So fast! And it makes my day-to-day tasks so much easier! I’m so happy I took that one next step. I’d love to hear what happened after you took your next step. Inquiring minds want to know!