What Are You Working on Big?
I have a simple question for you today, “What are you working on that’s big?” You know what I mean. Something that stretches you. Something that is just a bit risky. What is it that causes you to take a giant step outside of your comfort zone, yet in your gifts and calling. What are you working on that might make you a bit vulnerable? Something that might open you up to criticism. What are you working on that both excites and scares you at the same time?
I read a quote awhile back by Seth Godin which states “If your not making a difference, it’s probably because you are afraid”. Let me help you with something. Full-time bloggers have to constantly and willingly evolve. Growth is not optional. Bloggers who decided that social media wasn’t important missed out in a huge way. Are you growing? Here are three challenges that I want to share with you.
Don’t dream big and act small
Everyone has big dreams. In fact dreaming is easy and fun. It is the easiest part of the process for most of us. Taking massive action without guaranteed results is where champions live. You serve no one by acting small. As it has been said time and time again, the graveyard is full of people who died with their song still in them.
Decide to Fail at Something
Did I just catch your attention? I know this might sound like odd advice but stay with me. I remember the day things turned around for me. I was 26 years old and not super happy with where I was in life. I had done a ton of reading, dreaming and planning, but zero action. I was standing in a parking lot with my brother-in-law and I was sharing some of my frustrations about life at the time. Toward the end of the conversation I finally said, “it is almost as if I am just ready to go and fail at something.”
Fear was holding me back. Plain and simple. I had come up with all of the reasons why not to do something. It wasn’t until the pain of doing nothing was greater then failing at something that life began to work for me.
Perfection is your #1 enemy
I am not preaching against quality. I am always striving to be better at my craft. At the same time, you have to be willing to just put it out there. I remember when I had my first big idea with blogging. I wanted to launch a 18 week membership site for my career coaching blog. It was a lofty idea at the time. I was going to charge $27 a month. The problem was I had to create all of the content, videos, checklists, and PDFs.
I wanted to launch it quickly and not let perfection hold me back so here is what I did.
- Created the entire 18 week outline
- Created the first two weeks of content
- Launched the membership site to my blog
- Since I had a two week head start, I created the rest of the content a few weeks ahead of the students and they had no idea.
I was able to sell 10-15 memberships the weekend of the launch at a time when i maybe had 700-1000 visits a month. Speed of implementation should be your new motto. Whenever you learn something new, look for ways to put that into practice right away.
Let me ask you the question one more time.
What are you working on big?
