Think of it this way: imagine you live on the East Coast and want to take a road trip to the West Coast. You pack your bags, buy your road map, buy your local attraction guide, get in touch with your friends on the West Coast to let them know you're coming, and then get in your car to go.
Where exactly are you headed? To Los Angeles? To Seattle? To Portland?
If you were driving from NYC to Los Angeles, you would pack a different set of clothing and take a very different driving route with particular rest stops than if you were driving to Seattle. Your plan would be completely different.
But imagine now that you hadn't decided on whether to go to Los Angeles or Seattle? It would be very hard to plan for your trip, and you might waste quite a bit of time planning out your driving route or even getting to your first rest stop before realizing you were on the wrong course (or that you had to turn around and go back home to get the right set of clothing for your trip!).
Through my years as a success coach for women, I've seen this mistake made by entrepreneurs, artists, mothers, professionals, and others working on creating their Blueprints for their BIG projects. Take, for example: You are ready to switch careers because you are unhappy in your current position and your current field. You feel the pressure of time and money to get a new position quickly, so you randomly search job listings and websites instead of taking a little time to get really connected to what you want for yourself and your career and the possibility and opportunity that these desires might lead you to. Your mis-connected search may provide a new job or career, but not one that will ultimately fulfill you anymore that your current career.
In other words, it is essential to define or determine your bigger vision before setting out on your path or road trip.
A few years ago, a client of mine - a very talented photographer with her own practice - discovered this important lesson through our work together. She had been putting out a lot of time and energy working on her website without having a clear sense of what she wanted her end product to look like and feel like. It created a lot of busy work for her, and not very many results, until together, we focused on her inner wisdom and got super-clear on exactly what she wanted her website to do and be.
My client astutely termed this process "Clarification Before Perfection" - meaning, get clear on what you want before you spend time doing and perfecting it! This will save you a ton of time and energy!
Here are some questions to ask yourself in order to get your "clarification" for your project or endeavor:
1. What is my big vision here? What does it look like? What are the details?
2. Where am I going with this? Where do I want this project to be in 6 months? 1 year? 5 years?
3. If money is involved: how much money do I want to earn or raise?
4. How much time do I want to spend on this?
5. What is my timeline, and my time goals?
6. What do I know I absolutely don't want included in this project?
After answering these questions, you can then create an action plan and detail time planning that is aligned with your vision, and use your time efficiently and productively!
