For over a year, I told myself I should make a website, but never did anything towards accomplishing this goal. I wanted to up my game as a photographer and I knew creating a website was a good place to start. I could see it in my head, it was right there within reach, but that was the problem, I was so focused on the end result that I couldn’t see what needed to be done and the amount of efforts that it requires. All I was doing was telling myself I want a website, I want a website, I want a web…
When 2018 came, I did what I usually never do, which was making a new year resolution. My resolution came with a twist though, I did not state “I want a website by the end of the year”, instead, my new year resolution was to make a plan breaking down each step to build a website. A plan on its own doesn’t accomplish anything, but I will explain why this was crucial and necessary.
If you have big projects that you want to start or some goals that you want to achieve, I found that breaking them down into its fundamental pieces really does help. After breaking it down, it helps to make a plan to keep track of where you are at and where you are going. For reference, my plan for making this website looked like this:
- Research a website platform
- Write a bio of myself
- Get a photo of me
- Call a friend to help me with this
- Schedule the shoot
- Choose portfolio categories
- Choose pictures that go into these categories
- Etc…
Writing this down – I mean with a pen and paper… I know, strange, but it makes it easily accessible – will let you see what you need to do to accomplish that big ambitious goal. The more you break down the tasks, the better off you’ll be. The reason is, next time you want to sit in front of Netflix, you might glimpse at your plan and decide to work on it given how little efforts each portion requires and the potential benefits it can yield if you go through with it. You won’t need that mystical force you are waiting for, i.e. that giant, unattainable dose of motivation. It releases the pressure of having to do everything at once, you are no longer in front of an impossible task or something too daunting to take on. You’ll know that if you check every item in the plan, you will achieve what you set out to do, and you’ll see clearly where the sum of all these small efforts is leading you. Above all, you’ll create a vision for yourself, one that you can understand and follow, and every little thing you do, you’ll know the reason WHY you are doing it.
From personal experience, ruling off one item in the plan releases dopamine – to oversimplify, dopamine is a neurotransmitter responsible in part for craving, lust, love, motivation and many more. Basically, it has the power to make you feel good and it is also highly addictive, so who knows, maybe you could become addicted to pursuing your goals!
In short, find something you want to accomplish, break it down into its most fundamental pieces, write them down in a logical order and start from there. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, only when you ask can you see how many people there are for you.
If you are in the business world this probably doesn’t sound like something revolutionary, but are you applying this methodology in your personal life? Why not? See where it leads you!
To finish, I cannot recommend enough you to watch this TED talk. Chances are you wouldn’t be visiting my website reading this if I hadn’t listen to this man’s talk. I took the whole “breaking down into manageable task” part from him: