What Nearly Toppled Me
I did my first live webinar for Women Taking the Lead last week and I’m glad it’s done.
Don’t get me wrong. It was awesome. It was amazing. And the size and scope of it nearly toppled me.
And, now I know I can do it again.
The foundation has been created and each time I do a webinar it will be easier and I can identify ways to tweak it a little bit to constantly be improving.
Stretching to Accomplish New Things is Good
I was reflecting on this experience prior to doing the webinar while I was home visiting for Easter. I was trying to not to let the work and worry of the webinar interfere with the celebration.
Honestly, what gave me a little peace was the thought that it’s meant to be like this.
Am I supposed to stress myself out with each new thing? No.
I can see in retrospect some things I could have done to spread the work out more and to support myself.
But I (and you), if we want to live amazing lives, we have to find opportunities to stretch our current abilities. This is one of the ways in which we grow.
Sometimes life throws things at us and we’re forced to grow, whether we’re ready or not. But for the most part we have a choice in the areas we want to grow and how fast we want to grow.
How To Support Yourself While You Stretch
For myself, I’m a big fan of the Slight Edge philosophy; doing little things every single day to get just a little bit better.
For the webinar, when I wasn’t rushing at the end, I was watching a couple short videos each day and working on one or two slides at a time.
When I had to learn new software I would give myself more frequent and longer breaks because that is not my strong suit. I can learn new technology, and have a lot of fun with it once I do, but learning it takes effort and concentration. It’s not intuitive to me and frankly it makes me nervous at times.
But I do it, I take it slow, and I celebrate when it’s done.
I’ve got some steps you can take to just get started and feeling more comfortable stretching yourself in a new area.
Keep in mind, though I’m going to have you set a goal, the focus in these steps is not the goal, the focus is on mindset and forming new habits that will support you in attaining any goal.
Here are your steps:
Something. Anything. Think of the life you’d rather be living and identify something you can start working towards now.
Don’t make it too tight. Life happens and you don’t want to blame life events for the reason you didn’t hit your deadline. And not too far out either. Remember, the deadline provides motivation. If it’s too far out you won’t make this a priority.
This will support you in working toward your goal.
It should take no more than 20 minutes a day though somewhere between 5 and 15 minutes is ideal.
Who can you count on whom you can check in with, and that you feel comfortable being honest with, about your progress? That’s your accountability partner. Ask them if they are up for the task.
Don’t put it off. There’s no better time than now.
Of course there will be other things you will have on your to do list to accomplish this goal but you need to look at this daily practice as the foundation. It will keep you on track and moving toward your goal even if life gets crazy.
Here’s an example from my life.
Identify a goal. I want to begin building a team this year and I know it’s going to start with a virtual assistant who can help me with tasks around the promotion of the episodes of Women Taking the Lead. Something that needs to happen first is getting sponsors for the podcast. This, like the webinar, is new and definitely out of my comfort zone but I know I can do it. I’ve got the media kit ready to go and I know other podcasters who have sponsors so I know I can ask them any questions as they come up for me.
Set a date. I think it’s very reasonable that I could have my first paid sponsor within 30 days.
Daily practice. A daily practice would start with making a list of brands that I think align with my mission and would benefit from being my sponsor. I’m looking for a win-win! Once that is done my daily practice would be to send 2 customized emails to potential sponsors.
Accountability partner. I already have an accountability partner, Kim, whom I check in with every Monday at 9 am.
Getting Started. Today, I’m going to spend 15-20 minutes researching companies that share my mission and that my audience would love. Tomorrow, I’ll create an email template that I’ll customize to each company that I reach out to so I’m not recreating the wheel so to speak with each email I send.
Now it’s your turn. Go through the steps until you have your foundation and you are ready to start. If you find getting started difficult start with something fun or light to ease into the process and get used to it.
What do you want to accomplish this year?