So now what?! Hurry up and start already!

“So now what?”

I was watching the season premier of House this past Monday and this line got me thinking and the show wasn’t even five minutes in. The constantly “on” consultant and coach in me started a thought process that would spiral to the point where I felt I needed to write about it. Those three simple words can open a whole can of worms in terms of planning and your plans.

Good job! You just finished your (circle all that apply) life/financial/business plan! You probably spent quite a bit of time breaking down your goals and benchmarks, mind mapping, and setting up you action items. It’s probably all laid out on a white board in color or even just a color print out now staring you back in the face as you thumb through it proudly. So now what?

What happens after the planning and plan honey moon are over? How are you starting your snow ball so that once it starts rolling down hill it constantly grows? Here are a few bullet points to help get you motivated after all the excitement of creating the plan fades away.

• Keep it visible: Don’t let the digital version sit in an unfrequented file folder on your desktop for weeks. Don’t put it in the stack of things you keep telling yourself you’re going to get to. It never happens. DO tape all the pages of it somewhere you have to walk by on a daily basis. DO use tools like post it notes on a bathroom mirror to help keep you honest, even when you don’t feel like acting on them that day hopefully seeing them will make you feel very guilty : )
• Use it: These plans are supposed to be tools! You should be flipping through it daily checking things off, editing, and filling items in. The bigger the life you give this document the more likely you’ll get anything out it.
• Take it with you: Maybe not the entire plan but I’m sure you broke down some short term and action oriented tasks that will help you get to a benchmark. Make that a background on your phone, email it to yourself, post it up as a Facebook status update or even a Tweet. Your new plan doesn’t define who you are but the more you identify with it the more you start to own it and eventually the goals you’ll achieve.
• Tell everyone about it: Share your ups and downs with friends, family, or heck even the internet. Forums are a great place to swap stories – especially with all the self proclaimed experts and gurus (*cough* not me *cough*) you never know where you might be able to help someone out or pick up a new trick or two.

I hope you are starting to get the point here. Now I know there wasn’t anything revolutionary here but the biggest hurdle to getting started is….getting started. The easiest way to get over that hump is to start to create some accountability. You create it with yourself by constantly seeing your plan and reminding yourself that you have a big job ahead of you. Getting support or others to hold you accountable creates a little pressure from the outside for a little extra motivation. I mean, I know I don’t like to not honor what I say I’m going to do.

If you're already tired of hearing me talk about getting started already here's a little video that I found on YouTube. It's all about procrastination - something we are all a bit of an expert on.

Comments

[Tyler]

I think that one of the most common reasons people have trouble getting started is because it's not always obvious when the planning stage is over. You can keep planning forever if you want to. There are always more projections and forecasts you could spend time on, but at some point the additional planning won't actually impact your actions, so you're really just spinning your wheels.

Any thoughts on how someone can know that it's time for the "So now what" part?

[Financial Samurai]

Sharing your ups and downs is a good one. The lower the downs, the higher the ups!

Where's your RETWEET button mate?

[Nunzio Bruno]

Tyler - That's an interesting question about when the planning is actually over. I think I'll address that in a follow up to this post because you're right in thinking that it can be confusing in the transition. You can easily spin your wheels planning until you're blue in the face and never actually make any progress.

Sam - As always a great point as well! I love the poignancy :) As far as a ReTweet button goes I'm afraid that's one more thing I don't know how to do :( I know I know...I'm prob the worst blogger ever.

[Mindi]

Love this post and the video. Very wise, my friend.

I'm procrastinating on my teaching stuff by writing a blog post about teaching. Fun!