How To Actually Move On Your Big, Fat, Scary Goal

It. Is. Happening.

I’m officially putting it out there, sweet friend. I’m writing my first book.

As scary as it is to declare it to the world, it’s equally liberating to finally put a halt to wavering for so long. Should I start it? Can I do it? What if I fail? …Hmmm…maybe next year.

It’s something that’s been hanging over my head for a long while now, frequently coming up as one of those: “I really should be…” thoughts.

I bet you have a big, fat, scary goal like that too.

• Quit the job.
• Write the manuscript.
• Do the webinar.
• Create the course.
• Hire the coach.

There are so many reasons to not take action. What if you fail? What if you do it wrong? Who are you to take on this hairy, scary, audacious goal anyway?

Based on how I finally put the kibosh on this endless procrastinating, I’m walking you through five steps to take action and get you where you want to be.

#1: Stop Making Excuses

Think you’ve got a lot of reasons of why you can’t? As the Queen of Excuses, I will take you on any day. Here are just a handful of the reasons I couldn’t start writing my book:

• I don’t know if I should self-publish or use a publisher
• I don’t know if I have enough to say
• I don’t know if anyone will be interested in what I have to say
• I don’t have enough time
• I don’t have a clue how to write anything other than a blog

Notice how all those reasons had nothing to do with me actually starting to write?

Does it matter how I will publish or if anyone will be interested in what I have to say, if I don’t even have a book? Does it matter if I don’t have the perfect method or don’t have months of free time in order for me to write one chapter?

Nope.

Let’s just call out those reasons for what they are. Excuses. The below proverb sums it up best:

“If it is important to you, you will find a way. If not, you will find excuses.”

As for starting to write my book, all it took was a simple mindset shift. I moved from thinking about all the reasons I couldn’t achieve my goal to all the reasons it could be a possibility.

Instead of “I don’t have enough time” I thought, “I’ll make some time every week.”

Instead of “I don’t know if anyone will be interested” I thought, “Someone out there will benefit from what I have to say.” And so on.

The truth is, excuses make you feel better when you don’t make progress on your goal. Which also means, excuses don’t get you results.

Instead, shift your mindset from “why I can’t” to “how can I start to make this happen?”

Think about your big, scary goal. How can you shift your excuses to opportunities?

#2: Break down your humungous, overwhelming goal into bite-sized chunks

I would literally shut down every time I’d pick up a novel and think: I have to write THAT!

Focusing on the end goal is motivational self-sabotage.

Your goal is simply too big which makes it too scary to do anything about. Which is why you have to break it down into smaller chunks that feel more reasonable and dare I say, doable.

For me, this step meant creating an outline for my book. After brainstorming, I came up with twelve big ideas, each being its own chapter. It took me a few hours to come up with something I felt pretty good about. (Notice I didn’t say it was perfect, or even great, but good enough that my pulse was coming to a steady beat again).

If your big, scary goal is to transition careers and join a skincare line you love, you might create an outline and/or schedule with ten steps including,

• Research the business you’re interested in
• Reach out to the company to speak to a representative
• Go to a local meetup with other people in the industry

Sounds a lot less scary, doesn’t it?

But I’ll be honest. Even with my 12-step outline for my book, I was still procrastinating making the commitment and taking that first step. Which is why I knew I had to take step #3.

Step #3: Break down your bite-sized chunks even further

Even writing a full chapter felt like a giant undertaking and only took me from “I’m going to throw up thinking about writing a whole book” to “Even writing a chapter makes me feel nauseous.”

It was progress but not enough to tip the scale. So I looked at each of my chapters and broke them down into two sections.

1) One story to illustrate the main idea of the chapter

2) Key points in each chapter to support the main point

Further breaking down the chapter and focusing on just one point, all of sudden made it totally doable.

Anytime you’re stuck on moving forward, break down your hairy, scary goal further and further until you know you can take one small action.

Step #4: Put boundaries around your actions

Finally, I armed myself with a plan that I could start taking action on. But, I knew I needed to put parameters around it like, how long was I going to give myself to write each point? Or how many words I would commit to? Otherwise, it could easily be six months from now and I’d still be on the first point.

I decided I’d give myself one week to write each story and however many points I got through in that chapter up to 5,000 words. To break it down even further, I’d write 1,000 words a day for five days each week. (Which I’ve realized pretty much completes a  chapter).

Is that a big goal? Why yes it is!

It doesn’t mean your bite-sized goal needs to be so big. But you do need to have a way to measure your progress.

That could mean a deadline, word count or quantity. You must put a parameter on your smaller goal, so you start moving, know what you’re aiming for and stay accountable.

Speaking of accountability, this takes me to my fifth and final step.

Step #5: Let people know

If you’ve been with me for a while you know I like to be transparent and share what works for me in my biz and life. Which is why letting you know about my big, fat, scary goal and the parameters I’ve created for myself, will also help to hold me accountable.

If you’re anything like me you know that you’re least accountable to yourself. By publicly declaring your goal, asking your friends and family to hold you to your word, and shouting out to the presses that you are committed, you add a whole other level to your accountability. And chances are, you need it.

Even if you do you the first four steps, you’ll want to skip this step (remember, I’m The Queen of Excuses and I’m on to you!) — DON’T SKIP IT.

It’s a lot easier to pretend that you’ll take action all on your own. IF that is truly you, and I’m guessing it’s not or you wouldn’t have read this far, then do what you got to do.

But, if you know deep down your success rate is much higher when you have someone else holding you accountable, don’t skimp out on this critical part of the process.

• Enlist the accountability of a friend or colleague
• Join the mastermind
• Get a coach. (This is what I do best for my clients, so don’t hesitate to schedule time for us to chat to see if we might be a good fit)

So that’s it. Five steps to actually start moving on your big, fat, scary goal. Let’s reverse engineer this and start with Step #5. Let me know in the comments below the goal you are committing to.

And if you know someone that puts off what they know they should be doing too, be a good friend and please forward this post to them.

Procrastinating isn’t just a bad habit, it’s a dangerous one that will eventually kill your dreams.

Here’s to getting more of the right things done!

With love and appreciation,

Mridu