You’ve spent a lot of time daydreaming about all of the awesome things you want to do to enhance your life and your career. A LOT. Whether you think you’re too busy to do what you’re meant to do, or if you’re just plain out afraid, burnt out, or even lazy, you really should take a moment to step back and reflect, especially if you’re starting to find that you’re mainly just dreaming and talking about what you want to do rather than actually acting on it. When you’re about to venture outside of your normal comfort zone, the hardest part is honestly just taking the plunge and starting!
In my first post (here), I told you that I only have nights and weekends to work on the launch of my creative business because I am working full-time for someone else. Normally, for me, weekends are about catching up with family and friends and cleaning up the house to get ready for the next week. It’s not like I enjoy cleaning, but it’s a routine that makes me feel good and fresh. However, since I am often too busy during the week to do very much in that area, I typically end up spending the whole weekend tackling an enormous mess when I could be using those precious hours to work on what matters to me most – chasing my dreams!
So, last weekend, as I was about to pick up a broom and get to work, it hit me. That was not what I should be doing! I had the whole day to myself to do whatever I wanted, and all I was doing was fixing a mess that would be completely undone in a matter of days or even hours. I dropped the broom, headed upstairs to my in-home studio, and started organizing things in there instead. I took out a notebook that I’ve specifically dedicated to my business, and began brainstorming everything I needed to do to move forward. I have actually done something like this many times before, so all it really took was gathering up my old notes, and taking the time to make my plans edited, organized, and “official”. After I felt like all of my thoughts and dreams were out of my head and laid out on paper, I got started on the plan right then and there!
That was only three days ago, and ever since then I’ve made a ton of progress because it seems like I created a new habit just by taking that first step and beginning the momentum. Now that I know what it actually feels like to take my business super seriously, it has become important enough for me to do something to clean the house a little bit every day instead of wasting the weekend trying to tackle it all in one awful go. Extra time isn’t just going to magically appear – you’re going to have to sacrifice some of the things that the old you would have normally done and replace it with things the new you would do if you want to actually become that new person – that business owner!
It seems like such a silly thing to want something so much and to think about it all the time when, in reality, you’re doing very little to actually make it happen. Just think about all of the things you once thought were impossible until you went ahead and did it. I had been gathering information and resources about starting my business for over a year, and it was tough for me to break away from that. The idea of actually starting was overwhelming – what if I wasn’t really prepared yet? What if I really don’t have what it takes? I had to brush that all away and just DO it, because you can’t get a realistic idea of all that starting a business implies and how capable you really are until you make your first move.
