042: The 3 Things that are Holding you Back [break free TODAY] • Passion Design Project

Summary::

Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, and you’re just tossing around idea after idea after idea, feeling like a real champ. Gosh you have so many good ideas!!

Last week I was sitting at my favorite cafe, and lately I’ve noticed it always attracts business one on one meetings. Yes, I’m totally scopin the scene, seeing who’s being as productive as me…and by productive I mean fixing their coffee perfectly.

Okay so last week, there was a middle-aged man talking to a younger man a couple tables over. I could somewhat overhear their conversation and was a bit taken back that the whole convo revolved around the “consultant” or whoever he may have been, just spitting ideas out. Idea after idea after idea.

Maybe in the past, I would have thought that was a really enlightening conversation, like, wow, we just came up with so many good ideas! But that day, I couldn’t help but feel bummed for the younger guy. The only words he got out between the other man telling him all his ideas of what he should be doing with him biz, were “okay, yeah, okay….” and by the time their meeting was over, the younger biz owner still hadn’t gotten a word in. I sat there pondering how that actually helped in any way.

My point is this: entrepreneurs and creative have a bazillion ideas. Soooo many good ideas. I’ve had a million and I’m sure you have too.

In the past, I’ve totally thought that being an idea-creator was a huge talent. But, tons of ideas mean NOTHING unless you take ACTION on one.

Think back to the last idea you had that you didn’t do (but sorta wish you had). Do you have one? Why didn’t you take action?

Let’s go through the 3 things that are probably holding you back, and a bonus 4th:)

Time

Why don’t you have enough time? I’ll give you a sec to list them out. And now let’s write: excuses over top all of them. Yes, maybe you wrote things you need to get done, but are all of those higher priorities than the awesome idea you had? Can the laundry wait for a couple hours? Can someone else make dinner for you once a week? Can you shut off social media for an hour so you can really focus?

Most likely you CAN find time, you just find distractions easier. What I’ve found helpful is planning out my day hour by hour, and leaving some white space between tasks so that I’m able to stay on task easily.

This week I challenge you to find 2 extra hours to research and take one type of action on your idea. For example, contact someone who is successful in the field you’re interested in, go run a couple miles if that pertains, hire a service if it will give you more time, etc. Remember, you’ve got 24 hours just like every other successful person you admire! No excuses

Money

Oh, the money word. Totally get it. One time, I found a wad of $500 sitting on a first class seat after everyone got off the plane. I wanna be that guy who doesn’t even know 5 hundo fell out of h is pocket (I turned it in don’t worry!)

Anyhow back to money. Obviously, we would all love to have tons of money flowing to us endlessly (or even enough to feel good about buying groceries), but if you’re blaming your money story on not going after your dreams, it’s simply another excuse. Yes, that may not be fun to hear, but I’m the type of person that unforgivingly sprints after what I want to do whether I have everything in place or not.

Maybe that sounds totally irresponsible to you, or maybe it sounds like something deep down you’d love to do…but in my experience, running after what you want is a LOT more exciting and fulfilling than sitting there, waiting to feel comfy enough to jump into your work you really want.

If money is a super big struggle right now, the beauty of social media is that it’s free! Woo! So if you aren’t actively talking about what you’re passionate about and engaging with others about the topic, it won’t even matter if you have tons of money, because you don’t even have a true niche or tribe yet.

So get going on the free stuff, and start to take bigger jumps towards you dreams as soon/sooner as possible.

People’s Opinions

What if people think I’m not good enough for this?!

Um, they aren’t the people you want around. Let’s get one thing straight that we both know. We’ll never please everyone in this world. It’s impossible, and who would want to. Even the best people doing the nicest things in the world get crap thrown their way online. Think about how that feels for them!

Okay so it’s a bit nervewracking putting yourself and your true dreams out there. I get this so much because it’s something that I’ve held back from doing for so long. But once I started putting myself out there despite what reactions I was scared of, it was almost too easy!

The best part is, once you get over this fear, people become inspired by you, and want to be around you. They know you aren’t perfect and they are able to connect with you imperfects. It’s a win-win.

So figure out one way to put yourself out there this week, even if it’s just striking up a conversation with the owner of a cafe you like to discuss your coffee passion and ask how you could help them. Try it out!

BONUS: TOO MANY IDEAS!

And circling back to the beginning. One of the biggest things that could be holding you back in life is too many ideas. I’m an idea lover, but like we discussed, ideas are nothing without action.

So start taking some steps we discussed, you’ll realize as you go if you actually like your idea or don’t. But if it’s something you’re passionate about, it often just takes tweaking here or there to get it right. However, you’ll never know if you just let it stay in your head. So pick something and roll with it!

You can find more episodes like this on my website at www.PassionDesignProject.com or subscribe on iTunes to get them delivered to your app. Remember to leave a review and rating if you enjoy these!

I’d love to know what you’d like to hear more of, or any guests you’d like me to have. You can reach me at Haley@PassionDesignProject.com or by finding me on Facebook at Passion Design Project.