Part 3 of turning your big, crazy idea into reality involves
taking action. Part 1 involved thinking and deciding, then Part 2 ventured into talking…but
thinking and talking alone won’t make your idea come alive. You need to
actually do something. You need to make that phone-call, send that email, go to
that meeting, or book that ticket..!
It really doesn’t matter if you haven’t carefully plotted
and planned every step of the way. It really doesn’t matter if you can’t even
see beyond the first step!
Big ideas are not meant to be nice predictable plans
that simply allow you to repeat what you already know! They’re meant to
confound and baffle you. They’re meant to test you. They’re meant to grow you. That is their beauty. When you
finally reach your goal, you will be a wiser, stronger, better version of the person you were to begin with...
When we decided to build a house overseas, we had no idea
how to go about doing it, but after talking to people, we decided the best way
to go about it would be to source most of our supplies in Australia and ship
them over, and just buy bricks and cement locally since they were reasonably
priced (while everything else was hideously expensive).
We had zero experience with importing/exporting, so
the logical first step was to go online and start contacting shipping agencies for a
quote, and find out what we had to do. They gave us the information we needed,
and that information was enough for us to realize that we needed to hire
storage space while we gathered our supplies together.
Finding storage space then became the logical
next step, but only as a consequence of
taking the first step.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: “You don’t need to see
the whole staircase. You just need to take the first step.”
How many times do we procrastinate and do nothing, because
we can’t fully envision the end result, or can’t figure out how to get there?
For four years – four years! – I talked about how I wanted
to build a “Steve Pavlina” kind of site, with my own unique look and feel. But
I kept putting it off, because I couldn’t figure out a name, and I couldn’t
picture the layout or how it would look.
I told myself, if I
could just figure out what to call it – something that encompassed all that I
stood for – then I could just get started.
Last year, I had a blog designer redesign my header section.
But it just wasn’t “me”, and to make matters worse, I couldn’t describe what
“me” was all about, even to myself!! So, I began to design my own header. I simply began playing around with pictures that I liked, before I
finally said “Yes! That’s the one!”, then I updated the fonts and headings,
then moved onto re-labeling all my posts and fixing up my social icons.
At this point, I suddenly had a moment of absolute clarity
where I knew what to name my site. Really! It was so simple, I was astonished that I hadn't seen it earlier…
Then, everything began to fall into place. I began to see
with great certainty exactly what my site would look like, what it would offer,
what my articles would be about. Actually, I began having dreams about blog
post ideas, and waking up in the middle of the night with brilliant ideas for
subjects I just had to write about.
Only now could I formulate specific goals for my site,
rather than some vague notion, like “Steve Pavlina-type site, but without the polyamory…”
Have you ever noticed the longer you procrastinate on making
a decision, the more indecisive you become? When you finally commit to a
certain course of action, and begin moving in that direction, things just seem
to start falling into place?
Goals and vision-boards are great, but action really proves our commitment.
There would be NO businesses in this world, if every new
entrepreneur waited to know everything before she began. Rather, she begins and
she makes mistakes, she learns from those mistakes, and she corrects course…and
that is how successful businesses grow from fumbling first steps.
Sometimes the dream takes hold within us, and it’s fuzzy
around the edges, it’s vague…but it’s no less real. We wait and wait for
further clarity, but it doesn’t come, and the dream remains just that - a
dream.
We don’t need to see the whole staircase we just need to
take the first step. And with each step, the entire stair-case begins to take
form. It’s no longer a blurry dream or a vague concept, but a very real, achievable
prospect.
You Might Also Like:
How To Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 2): Putting It Out ThereHow To Turn Your Big, Crazy Idea Into Reality (Part 4): Then Just Keep Going
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