There’s been a recurring theme lately in my conversations with clients, and it’s this:
“How can you take that big idea, and make it smaller?”
Don’t misunderstand me: I want you to dream big, huge dreams! Let yourself, and your ideas, take up alllll the space.
It’s just that there comes a moment when you know it’s time to actually start. And when that moment comes, I see so many of you freeze. Overwhelm sets in. The big-ness of your dream feels oppressive, all of a sudden. Yikes.
(I experience this too. All the time. You know I write these posts as reminders for myself, right?)
So that moment – the moment you freeze, and begin to feel your body and mind contract – is the moment when it’s time to ask, “How can I make this smaller?”
In the tech entrepreneur world, we call this “designing an MVP” – a Minimum Viable Product. Alexandra Franzen recently sang the praises of tiny projects, and shared an inspiring list of incredibly feasible creative ideas.
Same deal, different packaging. The point is: when the task feels daunting, make it smaller and achievable.
Maybe it’s going to be a book eventually – but today, it’s a blog post.
Maybe it’s going to be a career change, eventually – but today, it’s reaching out to someone whose work inspires you to schedule an informational interview.
Maybe it’s going to be a thing you can’t quite picture yet – but today, it’s tuning into the joy of your own passion for it and asking yourself, “What’s the most exciting next step I can take?”
Take the contraction you feel, and listen to what it’s really saying. Not, “too big to attempt” but rather, “too big to tackle all at once.”
Find the small opening, and start there.
Photo by John Allen on Unsplash