This diagram looks simple. At first. But if you’re honest, can you really say you’re able to fill it in with your own life? If so, I congratulate you! Maybe the reason you can is because you’ve taken the Making Things Happen workshop with Lara Casey (who this diagram is from). Haven’t heard of her? This woman is amazing. She has a plan, works it, and teaches others to do the same. The clarity she achieves through hard work truly amazes me! I stumbled upon her during our time in Alabama this fall, I can’t remember the exact circumstances but I’m positive it was through a MTH 2010 alum, Lauren Grove of Every Last Detail (we met through sorority recruitment at USF in 2005). Since then I’ve been following the MTH crew and have learned a lot. About straight talk. About facing your fears—“feel the fear and do it anyway”. About goal setting and action steps. About trusting God and using the Bible in business. About facing and feeling your emotions and working with/through them. About determination. About friendship. About branding, personal branding. About having a purposeful life.
You may have heard me mentioning MTH and MBH (Making Brands Happen) on Facebook, Twitter, or on this blog in the past few weeks. I really feel like my eyes have been opened to an amazing, empowered group of people who—just by putting themselves, their personalities, their fears, their accomplishments, their struggles out on the web—have become mentors and friends in a we’ve-never-met-but-I-feel-like-I-know-you-so-well kind of way (maybe one-sided, but still so beneficial to me).
I am going to work this plan that Lara has laid out in the post below. I say it that way because I haven’t yet. But. ”Words have power. Affirmation makes you decide. Rephrasing sets that decision into active motion. It makes you DO something about it so you OWN it.”
Intrigued? Read on. Welcome to the world of Making Things Happen. I hope the MTH bug bites you hard! :)
Goal setting for 2011: 1. Evaluate what didn’t work in 2010, 2. Define what did work, 3. Get clear and write out your fears and 4. Evaluate the people you surround yourself with, cultivate vision and create an inspiring environment to flourish in. 5. Define your driving purpose.
6. Act on your purpose. Making things happen is all about action. In order to make big things happen, you have to break them down into physical steps. Thinking about something is not an action step. Using the diagram above (download and print here), map it out. First, fill in our purpose, then write your decisions (aka goals) that support that purpose. I like using the term decisions, because it is very powerful to put what we want to make happen in present tense terms. See my personal example below. Instead of “I want to have a strong, flourishing, organized business that makes me want to jump out of bed every day” rephrase to (again, this is going to feel awkward, but just do it) “I have a strong, flourishing, organized business that makes me want to jump out of bed.” It may feel awkward to do this at first, but words have POWER. Affirmation makes you decide. Rephrasing sets that decision into active motion. It makes you DO something about it so you OWN it.
Next, write the first three action steps under each decision. Goals can be really overwhelming if you don’t break. them. down. Chip away at them bit by bit and they will happen. Action steps have to be small (doable in under two minutes), PHYSICAL (thinking about something is not an action step), and they have to be realistic. If you get stuck, use pre-visualization to see yourself accomplish that larger goal. If you can see yourself walk through every step, your action steps will become clear. One of your action steps may be to ask for help. Remember, this is not a to-do list. All of it does not have to happen today, or even in 30 days. But, it can. Even if you have 50 decisions/goals on your list, all with three tiny two-minute action steps, that’s just 5 hours – part of one single day to set your entire life in motion. Many things on my list will only take one or two action steps to FINISH. Some will take 20. Nothing is impossible if you just START it. I’ve lived this out this year over and over. Almost every time I would dream up a big project or face a challenge in the last year, there was a moment (sometimes a month) where I thought it was impossible… until I felt the fear and did it anyway. The impossible instantly became possible when I defined my physical plan and took that very first tiny physical action step. If you don’t think you will actually do something on your list or it seems too overwhelming, it is. Break it down. Then, act. Remember: the timing may never be perfect to start something. Carefully weigh risks, but don’t miss opportunity in waiting. You can always revise your plan as you go, but you just have to start. “A year from now, you will wish you had started today.” Begin anywhere.
The graphic below is just a small portion of my list so you can see an example. I didn’t expect to DO any of these the day I made my list, but when you find clarity it leaves you wanting to act. Clarity breeds action and having a clear purpose gives you focus. To prove my point, I made a 101 list before doing this exercise and about 40% of the items on my list ultimately didn’t fall under my purpose. So, I had to take time to evaluate those things. Why did I want them? Ultimately, for silly reasons. SO, they got cut. It’s easy to fall into the trap of having a goal because it sounds great, but what do your goals serve when you look at the bigger picture? Vision gives you focus and eliminates distractions. Note: the yellow checks are things I already did. They took me a collective 20ish minutes to do. Again, my master list is much bigger and many projects will take dozens of two-minute action steps, but this is just a taste. I make a list like this almost daily with just five actionable tasks and action steps under each. Any more than that and my list gets overwhelming. Make your list however you want, but be sure to make each step physical and doable in under two minutes, if possible. A lot of what I’ve listed here is initial steps – ie – blocking off time, preparing, etc. That old quote is 100% true: success is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Set yourself up for success by making an actionable plan. Want your own Decision + Action List? Download and print here.
My 2011 Vision Board and lots of other goodies are up next. Other than publishing this post, I am taking an internet break today and tomorrow to prepare for this year. Happy 2011, friends! – Lara
P.S. Only a couple weeks left to register for Making Things Happen 2011. Payment plans are available, so email Marissa to get your spot before your city sells out or just register now! Want to know what MTH is? Read all about it here or read posts from past alum (most recent at the bottom). Tampa, Atlanta, Charlotte, New York and Vegas (WPPI) are the ONLY cities planned for 2011. We purposely chose cities that are easy to travel to and all intensives will be held at airport locations. Cities are filling up FAST today, so register NOW .
Erin,
Great job! Your on your way!