How To Get What You Want

It’s easy:

• Decide what you want
• Work out all the things that are stopping you
• Address all those things
• Voila! You are where you wanted to be!

My brain is very good at seeing all the pitfalls in a plan…it is what made me good at project and change management in my corporate career. I was the voice of doom asking “have you thought about x, what about if y happens?”

Some people saw that as negativity, always coming up with the problems…

But the thing is, for me, it was the most POSITIVE thing I could be doing. If you can identify all the things that could get in the way, you can shift them, instead of being surprised when they turn up!

So once you’ve decided what it is you want, pay attention to everything your brain starts telling you could be a problem…

Don’t just ignore or resist it, really listen in a curious and non-judgmental way and thank your brain for coming up with these obstacles…

WRITE THEM ALL DOWN…

And then create a plan for them… one by one…

Here’s an example:

I want to become a freelance writer

What’s getting in the way:

1. I don’t know how to get clients
2. I’m not sure I’m good enough
3. It’s going to be really hard

Then start to come up with solutions for all of these, just like any other project…

1. Research how other people find clients (speak to people in the industry, listen to relevant podcasts, )
2. Address the areas you feel weaker in (perhaps a short course or other learning opportunities), speak to someone you trust who will give you honest feedback, send your work out and see what feedback you get…and continue to learn from it
3. It definitely might be hard, so prepare for how you will feel when it gets hard, rehearse how you are going to remind yourself that it is worth it, identify WHY you are doing this up front, so when it does get hard you can keep going

Etc etc…

Left unattended these thoughts can sky rocket and turn into a definitive list of why you will never get what you want.

But you have much more control over that than you realise.

Write down your fears, address them and take the actions required to get where you want to be

You won’t regret it