What is the easiest next step?

If you’re anything like me, your idea process goes something like this:

1. Have brilliant idea in the shower.
2. Get excited and have more ideas on how to make it happen.
3. Have even more ideas to expand my original idea.
4. Get nerdy about planning the details.
5. Have nightmare about planning the details.
6. Get overwhelmed and give up.

As you can see, when the ideas are flowing, it’s super easy for me to get 10 steps ahead of myself. Suddenly I’m worrying about some minor detail that really doesn’t even need to happen to get my idea out there.

Lately I’ve been asking myself a simple question to pull myself back:

What is the easiest next step?

I have a blog. I have an email list. And the easiest next step is usually writing one small piece of my idea there. Then I can turn it into a series. Then I can turn it into an ebook. Then I can turn it into an ecourse.

As I’ve shared before, it took me a year to write my first ebook because I got stuck on the details and the idea of making it perfect. My second ebook took one week. Quite the time difference, right? The difference was in my approach. With my second ebook, it started as an email series. Then I realized I was really proud of what I had written, and with a few extra steps, I could produce it as an ebook.

Of course, there are a million ways I could have expanded that book. But then I never would have released it in the first place. And adding more to it wouldn’t have served its original purpose — to provide a simple way to help people discover their brand.

As creatives, we tend to overthink things — but it doesn’t have to be difficult.

As creatives, we tend to overthink things — but it doesn’t have to be difficult.
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A latest example from my own struggles is this ecourse I’ve been wanting to create for ages. I’ve always wanted to teach people to create their own website, but I’ve never really been able to wrap my mind around it. When I think about it, suddenly I’m imagining how I’d set up the technical side, and all these other details that aren’t important right now. I can set up the technical side when the content is actually created. And I can start creating the content by writing blog posts and emails — and improving the content I’ve already written.

What do you want to do? What’s the easiest next step?

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