Now you see it; now you don’t.
Q: How many lessons can one person learn from a big project?
A: About one for every month she worked on said project.
We’ve arrived at the last three lessons from the year-long process of my birthing 11 Kindle e-books. These lessons all have to do with being aware of just how your assumptions – your “vision” – impacts your activities.
Lesson #10: Don’t just look: SEE what’s in front of you.
It’s easy to start moving so quickly on the way to accomplishing a goal that you fall into the trap of looking without really seeing. (At least it’s easy if you’re me.)
For example, I wanted to highlight important tips in the text of each book by putting them in a larger font and center-justifying them. With my first book, I ended up going through all kinds of contortions to make this happen because I concluded there was no way to do this easily.
Wrong.
There actually was a simple way to change the basic formatting, but it required me to slow down enough to notice that there was a tab in the Kindle Direct Publishing platform, helpfully labeled “formatting.” DOH!! Fortunately, I learned this lesson early enough in the process that I wasted very little time doing things the hard way.
So that raises some questions: What are you looking at but not really seeing? And how’s that impacting your productivity and ultimate results?
Lesson #11: Keep an eye out for resources that improve your efficiency, boost your productivity, and preserve your sanity.
As I mentioned in the first round of lessons, you don’t want to spend so much time researching that you never start creating. This applies to looking for helpful resources once you’re in the midst of your project.
An easy way to avoid this obstacle is to notice specific areas where you’re struggling, then go back into research mode just long enough to find resources to address that particular challenge. Once you’ve gotten the help you need, you can get back into your creative groove.
Lesson #12: Be careful not to get bogged down by tunnel vision.
Too much of anything is toxic – like when your laser focus becomes obstructive tunnel vision.
Be sure to step back from the busy-ness of working on any project to ask yourself, “Am I still moving toward my big goal? Have I gotten bogged down or side-tracked in any way? Am I so focused on specifics that I’ve lost sight of the big picture?”
Check out the following video for a case in point.
What’s your current big project? What will you enjoy as the result of your conscious focus, bias for action, and courage to do whatever it takes to create that great outcome for yourself and your clients?
Maybe you know what needs doing, but your desire for results hasn’t quite overcome your inertia. If that’s the case, I offer compassionate butt-kicking (AKA consulting) services that may be just what the doctor ordered.
Working together might be a huge win/win, or it might be the stuff of nightmares. There’s an easy way to find out which before anyone’s committed: a no-charge Get-Acquainted Call. In 40 minutes or less, we’ll come to a comfortable, mutual decision: go, no go, go later. And no matter which decision we come to, you’ll end the call with greater clarity than you began it. So what do you have to lose? Only your stuckness.
(BTW, thanks to LindaDee2006 for posting her rabbit-in-the-hat image in the Creative Commons section of Flickr.)
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