Is it fear or excess? How do you know?
You know I always try to give you both action steps and mindset tips that have helped me along the way and this episode has both. Knowing where to start can be genuine result of too many things or the overwhelming fear we have starting new things or going outside ouc comfort zone. I promise you friend it’s so worth it.
The answer to today’s question is …
Brain dump it … how did you do on the quiz? Did you pass?
Brain dumping is a powerful tool to get everything out of our brains to invite clarity and invoke action. It’s really that simple when you find yourself stuck in the “I don’t know what to do next” cycle. I was stuck for a long time in my business in the “I don’t know what to do next” cycle. It was the first few years of my business. And honestly it wasn’t because I didn’t know what to do next it was two things … … fear and lack of planning.
Once I implemented 90-Day planning into my business things got a heck of a lot clearer and it was hard for me not to know what to do next.
At that point i knew my resistance wasn’t not know what to do but rather the actual doing that I hesitated.
Well let’s address those little objections our silly brains might through into our thoughts.
1. That is too much work I’ll have to do it later
2. I don’t know where to start with that one
3. Will that really help my business
I think this list can go on for awhile. The point is now you’ll know if you really truly don’t know where to start and if you didn’t, now you should, or whether you are stalling out of fear. Wow things just got deep my friend. Now I have two kinds of “don’t know what to do first” – genuine where do I start and then the “well I’ll ignore this until I can’t because I’m resisting.”
Let’s talk about the genuine where do I start:
Brain dumping will help you with this one – so will 90-day planning sessions.
Use a good ol’ fashioned pen and paper and start writing, there are also a lot of fun apps out there you can try for braindumping and mind mapping I’ll shoot a link in the show notes.
Next you need to process the dump:
Categorizing them using the Eisenhower Method (Do, Delegate, Decide and Delete) what needs done, what needs done first, what can someone else do and and what’s not important at all.
Converting the tasks into actionable steps and put them in a project management system, or as a to-do list in your bullet journal or planner.
Commit to the plan! If you are struggling with committing to a plan go back and listen to Episode 7 where I talk about structuring your day, I talk about the mindset around sticking to a plan.
Now for the Resistance group
This one is a bit tougher, but here are my cheat codes to resistance and fear.
Identify where your resistance is coming from – what about the task is making you hesitate?
Draw a line down the piece of paper and on one side write fear and the other write outcome.
If your fear is to post a video because you think everyone will criticize you or you will sound dumb or hate hearing your own voice, on the outcome side I want you to write what good thing that could come from sharing the video: you could connect with someone who really needed to hear your message and in turn gain a new follower and grow your business. How great is that!? You aren’t in this because you don’t know what you’re doing. You are in this game because you know something that could help someone else’s life be better and once you have identified your Why and who you want to serve, this will still be tough but it will be much easier when you realize you aren’t doing this for you – you’re doing it for them. To have come this far means you have something inside you pulling you to this destiny. Don’t let fear stop it.
Now Take Some Action
Commit to taking 5 min of action on one of the things you have to do. It’s hard to stop a flow once you get into it and 5 min might just get you into a flow that produces a lot more work than you thought you could.
Taking action is the only thing that gets us out of fear and into confident action.
Practice makes perfect – never taking a step in the gym doesn’t tone your muscles. Same with never taking action doesn’t make us better.
If you are hesitating creating a video, record it anyway you can delete it if it’s really that bad, but start practicing creating a video.
Then start practicing publishing that video, writing that blog, sharing that social post, talking about your services, offering help, doing something slightly outside your comfort zone.
Just don’t let the fear win!
Review us
“I love the Short of It with Amanda Long.” If that sounds like you, please hit the subscribe button in your favorite podcast player, and if you feel like “Amanda, everyone needs to hear this” please rate my podcast click here open in Apple Podcasts, and click the stars to give us a 5-star rating and share something you loved about the episode!
I’d love to have you join us in the Biz + Life Productivity Group for the doers, implementors and magic-makers. Weekly we chat more in-depth about business, life, family and productivity.
