Following my own advice

Me trying to find a way around the hard work. (Images from the National Library of Medicine)

Yesterday, while driving, I came up with a new way of visualizing the relationships between the programs I’d like to offer.

I held it in my mind and committed it to paper later that day. It’s starting to make sense. However, the diagram I drew made me realize that there are still some pieces missing. And what is the overarching theme?

There was a time when I wouldn’t have felt comfortable taking action until I had the whole thing planned out. That generally meant that I would never take action. The project that I was working on back in 2011, trying to refine the master plan? It has never amounted to anything.

Now, with my current project, I understand that I don’t need to finish this diagram in order to begin. Indeed, I’ve already begun. It will be through action and effort that I will get the rest of the way there. The answers will come through the effort that I put in.

I learned through teaching other people how to practice music what a beneficial effect it had on my own playing. Whenever I was tempted to rush, I would hear my own voice in my mind reminding me to slow down, take it in smaller pieces, and be patient.

A similar thing is happening now that I am spending a lot of time helping people with their businesses. The same principles are in play. I know that I can structure my work as a series of experiments. I can’t plan for every contingency. I can’t guarantee my own success, but I can stick with what I’m doing long enough to make a fair assessment of it. I can enjoy the process instead of just being in a hurry to get to the end. There is no end.

It’s hard. I see myself dealing with the same questions my clients wrestle with: Is this really what I want to commit to? What if it doesn’t work? What if this is a stupid idea?

And I see the familiar temptation to add complexity and bifurcation instead of keeping it simple.

Although I’m benefiting greatly from the support of mentors and peer masterminds who are advising me, I can still consider what advice I’d give to someone else in my situation. I would definitely recommend keeping things simple. I would most likely hand wave any concern about naming, visual branding, and web design, suggesting that all of that can be deferred. I would ask what can be done now to test the viability of a particular offer with a particular group.

So even though it feels like more fun to tinker with the big picture vision and imagine what things could look like in the future, I understand that the true test of what I’m up to is to connect with actual people to help solve their problems today. Without that, I’m just playing around.

Maybe someday, I will have these five or more different programs to address the needs of my clients. Right now, however, they don’t exist. Figuring out how they fit together is interesting and potentially useful, but it’s not real life. Not yet. My effort is better spent on that hard work of testing my ideas out there in the wild.

Attempting to wrangle myself is a big job, but my clients provide a constant reminder of why it’s worth it, along with the accountability to practice what I preach. I will follow my own advice because if I don’t, I have no leg to stand on. Happily, it happens to work.