Dreaming about leaving our 9 to 5 is something that many of us often dream about, either to start our own business or for a better opportunity. Either way there are the days when we wake up energized and ready for the day and others when we question our lives down to the mistakes we made in High School.
Guys dreaming is healthy, wanting more out of life is also healthy. The idea that we can reach our dreams and go beyond what we have imagined can sometimes be scary. I have been giving this a lot of thought lately and the conclusion I have come to is that we are all afraid. I know, I know, I’m not telling you something you have not heard before but let’s get a little deeper into it.
I want you to begin to imagine your life doing your dream job on a daily basis, what does it look like? Let me share what my vision looks like with you, it goes something like this: I get to take my son to school every morning, work from home in my pajamas and have the freedom to come and go as I please. I get dressed up for meetings with clients and most importantly, I get to give back to my community by creating a foundation to help those in need. Wow, the prospect of that life really excites me and makes me smile, really big.
So now I am in a great mood and I begin to research on how to make that goal a reality. I google everything there is on the topic and I begin to write down pages worth of business ideas and I now have about 50 watch later videos sitting in my YouTube queue and now I begin to feel a bit overwhelmed. Some of the videos I see warn against that, they say to start small and not to overwhelm yourself, but I can do this right? I can do it all because I am intelligent and very capable, because after all look at all that I do at work for someone else. Why can’t I do this for myself?
This goes on for weeks sometimes and with an overstimulated mind I keep telling myself, I will start on Monday. The special notebook I purchase yet again, the one that will hold “the beginning of my new journey”, the, ahh I lost count which number this one is now half way full with ideas, helpful websites, quotes.
And then it happens, that voice in my head begins to flood me with the what ifs; What if I leave my job and I fail? What if I am not good at it? What if people hate me? You get the picture. I slowly begin to retreat until I eventually fully surrender to the voice and slowly but surely I stop, yet again.
I am very confident that you my friend have experienced something similar to this where you are excited about a life changing situation and you then listen to that voice. The sad part about this is that many of us are on a continuous loop and this is a recurring experience throughout our lifespan. I call this over analysis paralysis and it truly is debilitating but I have great news for you, there is a cure.
Over analysis paralysis is what keeps most of us from fulfilling our full potential, from becoming the person we are meant to be. Friends, I have very good news for you. There is a cure for over analysis paralysis, and I have the antidote and what’s even better is that I am going to share it with you so that you can cure yourself and share it with others around you.
The antidote consists of 5 steps and they are as follows:
Step # 5 – Remove the wall! You know which wall I am talking about, the one you built when you listened to that voice telling you it is impossible to do. Push it, punch it, kick it, either way get out from in front of your face.
Step # 4 – Take a small step towards your goal. Rather than overwhelming yourself as I often did with my research journal, take one small step towards your goal. If you want a different job polish up your resume or if it is a business you are seeking create that Facebook page for it. Whatever step you take, no matter how small, will take you closer to your goal.
Step # 3 – Join a community of like-minded individuals, join Facebook groups of people with similar interests as you, go to meetups with people who are yearning to cooperate with others in the same situation as them.
Step # 2 – Create a road map with your goal as your destination, outline the steps you need to take in order to make that goal happen. Now you can dig into each step and break that step down into smaller goals that will eventually lead you to where you need to be.
Step # 1 – (drum roll please) The long-awaited number one step is to stop waiting for the perfect time! Do not wait for the perfect scenario to happen for you to move towards your goal, just do it! What happens when you just start is that you come across issues and situations that you would normally not know about because you never started. Learn along the way, all the experts had to start somewhere and that somewhere was where they were not experts.
Well hustlers, now you have a very basic formula to catapult you into doing what you are meant to do, not what you have to do. Go out there, do it and most importantly be consistent in your work and you will see the results.
Over analysis paralysis no more!
