I almost wrote, “where are all my really smart, fast processing people?” And I deleted it, because I believe everyone has their THING where they process/move faster than others.
So. You know that thing you do, where you skip over the simple, baby, small or obvious steps or answers? I can do this all the time. I know I “just” need to “do” the “things” I know need doing. I’m not doing them. Every day I know I need to do them and I don’t. And because I know they need doing, I don’t look at them. I focus on a million other things.
Just recently, I realized I have been pretty heads down. I’ve been doing some regular networking I do and reaching out to familiar people, but I’d been spending more time working on longer term projects. To keep my business in business, I need to do both. I need to be actively looking for clients or people who may know people who could be clients AND working on the strategic or bigger projects. I knew I needed to reach out to people. I knew I needed to be engaging in social media, but I wasn’t doing it. With the help of my coach, I slowed down. I put down all the ideas that were more “short term” doings vs long term projects. I noticed what was holding me back and what I wasn’t looking at on a regular basis. Example: every day I knew I had to engage in social media, but I wasn’t considering expanding my social media world (who I follow). Even though, because it all felt “the same” was a big reason why I was disinterested from engaging. Slowing down to write it all down and talk it through with her, got me out of my head and gave me the elevation to see what I could do, what I’d want to do. I was able to reframe it. I hadn’t been able to do that when all I kept doing was write “reach out to x people and comment on z posts on y platforms” each day in my planning.
What about you? Where are you fast forwarding through or over some “basic” or “obvious” steps, tasks or thoughts? Maybe it’s looking for a new job. You become focused on figuring out what you want to do, your ideal job, which is a big thing. That you “forget” or skip over cleaning up your resume or linkedin profile. Sure, could you do that after you’ve figured out this big thing, yes. And. Doing these little things may just help with the big thing. Or, it could be that you know you want & need to network and you’re not doing it. Instead of slowing down and looking at what’s there, do you just keep not doing it?
This is really common in “do-ers”. People who just do things. Those people who have initiative and just get on doing the thing. They can get so busy and caught up in doing and KNOW that they are people who do just DO things, that they have a really hard time slowing down to get elevation. Yes, they are busy doing other things, some of which is probably actually valuable. And, they believe that they will just “do” the thing at some point. Instead of slowing down to do the thing sooner, they’ll “waste” time not doing the thing until they do. If you are a do-er, does this resonate? What do you see for yourself?
What can you do about this? Well, I believe this is the big benefit of coaches and accountability partners. Accountability partners will at least point to the thing you’re not doing. Coaches will help you get elevation, see the pattern and work towards breaking it.
In the absence of either of these, do you have a project plan? Do you have a written plan of the things that need to get done and the order in which they need to get done? Do you have dates attached? If you do, you can get curious about why you’re not sticking to the plan or what steps you may have skipped or not be thinking about. Similarly, when I’m doing this, I feel like I’m spinning on the topic. It feels like I’m a top, spinning, all around the thing, but not on top of the thing. If you can recognize whatever that feeling is for you, you may be able to pause and go back to the basics: write down all the things and work from there.
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