Latest / You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women / 109. You Don’t Need a Full Plan, You Need a Starting Point

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109. You Don’t Need a Full Plan, You Need a Starting Point · You're Overqualified Podcast - Career and Leadership Strategies for Women

• 0:08
  Hi, I'm Danny Tan and if you are here, you are in the right
• 0:12
  place. Welcome to the Pivot and
• 0:13
  Promotion podcast where we say forget the rules because they
• 0:16
  weren't written for us. I'm Danny Tan, I'm your host as
• 0:19
  well as career and leadership coach and a proud advocate for
• 0:22
  redefining what success and leadership looks like.
• 0:24
  And here's what I know. You can lead at any level.
• 0:27
  You can pivot at any age, and you can make moves that feel
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  right for you, whether you're climbing the perfect ladder,
• 0:33
  starting something completely new, or just figuring out your
• 0:35
  next step. I've got you covered with
• 0:37
  strategies, stories, and straight up inspiration.
• 0:39
  So let's make some moves. So today we're going to talk
• 0:47
  about how you don't need a full plan, you just need a starting
• 0:51
  point. And you may say, Oh my gosh,
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  I've been listening here for a minute and you're always talking
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  about a plan and you're always talking about structure and
• 0:58
  being organized and having these steps.
• 1:00
  But here's the thing, this is for folks who are the over
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  planner. Over thinker gets stuck in the
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  decision fatigue and we're in the loop of just planning.
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  So if you were that person and you're getting stuck in the
• 1:15
  planning trap, then I want you to listen to the steps and the
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  things that I'm going to talk about today.
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  Because if you are someone who gets stuck in planning and then
• 1:23
  you don't never escape the loop of planning and take action,
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  then this is for you. You do not need a full plan.
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  Somebody else maybe does. You do not need a full plan
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  because you are stuck in the planning trap right now.
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  So you just need a starting point.
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  So let's break it down South Part 1.
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  You are stuck in the planning trap.
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  You probably have heard this voice in your head that says,
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  oh, you know, I just need to get more organized or once I have a
• 1:47
  clearer plan, I'll start or I don't want to waste my time
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  doing it wrong. OK, back over planning is a form
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  of avoidance and it looks like it's productive that you're
• 2:00
  planning and planning and planning and you're researching
• 2:02
  and you're researching and it feels like you're being really
• 2:04
  smart about it and you're, you know, assessing all the risk and
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  all that stuff. But it still keeps you stuck.
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  It doesn't take you into action, doesn't move you forward.
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  So if you're somebody who is consistently stuck on, you know,
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  finding more researches, doing some me more resources, doing
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  some more research, right thinking to yourself, well, I
• 2:26
  don't want to waste time doing the wrong thing.
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  So let me find the perfect thing and the perfect way to do it.
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  Or like once I have a better idea or a clearer plan or I have
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  more time or I get more organized, then I'll do it.
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  You are over planning is a form of avoidance.
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  Say it with me. And so it feels like it is super
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  productive. It feels like it's so smart, but
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  also it's just kind of keeping you stuck of where you're at.
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  And the reason why you're doing that is because, but two, you
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  want to create safety within your brain.
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  You want to create security within your brain.
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  And so we feel safe and secure when we have all the little
• 2:59
  possibilities hoarded with us. So if you want to hoard all the
• 3:02
  possibilities, that's great, but that's not going to move you
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  forward into what it is that you want to do.
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  So for you, I'm going to say you do not need a formal plan laid
• 3:09
  out. You just need to have some kind
• 3:10
  of starting point. So for example, I have a client
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  I have, I have multiple clients who are the over planner, over
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  organizer, wants to wants to not waste their time and do the
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  right thing in the first time, right?
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  Because if you are an eldest daughter, a daughter of
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  immigrants, a woman of color, a woman, any of these things, we
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  have at times been conditioned that we have to get it out and
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  we have to get it out right? Because that is how it's just
• 3:34
  been society, societal for us. Get it out right the first time.
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  Make sure you've assessed all the rest.
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  Do it perfectly. And so I'm telling you to
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  release yourself from that, please, and just know that you
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  can experiment. So here's an example.
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  I have a client who she knew, she knew for a long time that
• 3:52
  she wanted to change careers. She wanted to change careers.
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  And then all these different things started popping up.
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  Well, what if it's not the right time or I don't want to waste my
• 3:59
  time if this path isn't going to pan out or what if I need to
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  have more certificates, more education, more training.
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  I have no experience. And she kept going, going,
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  going. She had waited over a year to
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  make this pivot happen. Some clients I know wait
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  multiple years. So when she was talking to me,
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  she was like, you know, I don't know if I can make this happen.
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  Bop bop bop. I was like, you can have all the
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  spreadsheets in the world with all the resources, you can make
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  a mood board, you can have the apps to help you keep track of
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  something. But if you are not actually
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  taking action and moving forward, it does not matter.
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  So I stripped it down to one priority, one priority for her
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  just to start, which was OK. I want you to have conversations
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  with people who actually have walked this path before, just as
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  your starting point to start to create and build what is
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  possible in your mind for yourself.
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  And then once we have done that, I want you to experiment with
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  what it's like to talk about how your experience translates to
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  that, right? And start to practice that.
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  So versus her getting stuck in the not even starting, not even
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  starting, it's breaking it down into things that could
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  potentially just move her forward.
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  And that is the part that's most important because for her, then
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  she started to build her confidence her to build her
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  confidence sure to see what was possible for herself.
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  And then she started to become less intimidated, started to
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  experiment. Experimenting was like to apply
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  for different roles, experimenting with talking from
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  people, talking with people who are from different career paths
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  versus just being stuck on the one starting to refine what she
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  wanted to do. But it feels risky and it feels
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  scary and you're taking this jump, you're taking the sleep.
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  So in order to make that happen, you have to be able to not get
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  stuck in just research planning mode, but actually have to take
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  steps forward and take action. So my question that I have for
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  you is where are you stuck in preparation mode right now?
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  And what are you avoiding by just staying there, right?
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  Where are you trying to find safety and security by avoiding
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  taking action and just staying where you're hoarding all the
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  scenarios in preparation mode? Because that is what's really
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  holding you back from what it is that you want to do.
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  And so the next piece, the second phase that I would talk
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  about, which obviously I am hammering about a route about
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  already and I always do, is clarity comes from action, not
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  from overthinking. Your clarity does not come from
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  you thinking on the same loop of the same thought of the same
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  question of the same scenario. That is, you can't think your
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  way over, overthink your way to clarity.
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  You have to take some kind of action to figure out, oh, was
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  that the right step? Does that feel right?
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  Was this the right step? Does it feel right?
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  We were taught that certainty is a prerequisite for action and
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  it's not. You don't have to be certain
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  about something before you take action.
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  You can actually take action and be uncertain and then create
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  clarity from that because you are testing, you're iterating,
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  you're learning, you're moving forward.
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  So, for example, I could be living in Chicago as I did and
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  decide I want to move to New York and think, well, is New
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  York right for me? Is it the right city?
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  Is it going to be too noisy? It's going to be too expensive,
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  it's going to be too loud, you know?
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  Well, I like it. How are the people?
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  I could keep doing that. I could research all the things
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  online. I could ask people who live
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  there. I could ask people who live
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  there and move from there. I could go check it out.
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  I'm still just stuck in research mode.
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  What if I did that for a year? Well, I wouldn't know unless I
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  moved there, even if it's for a small period of time or if I
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  were just to stay there for even longer of like a few weeks.
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  You know, stay for a long weekend, stay for two weeks, see
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  if you can stay for longer than that and experience it a little
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  bit more in the day-to-day. And you test it and you explore.
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  If you like that one weekend trip, if you like that one week,
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  if you like to stay there a little longer, you enjoy it,
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  then you make your action to move there.
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  But if you just stay in research mode, you're never going to
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  know. So Oh my gosh, I had a, a
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  founder who she was going to launch a brand new offer and she
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  was like, I'm not sure if I have their perfect niche.
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  My website isn't set up yet. I don't have like my pitch of
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  how I want to speak to it and market it.
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  I'm not sure. And I said to her, you could sit
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  here wondering if this offer is going to be a good offer,
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  waiting for your website to be perfect, making sure that you
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  have identified the perfect niche.
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  Or you could test it and see how it lands.
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  You could just test it to who your ideal client is and where
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  they sit. Maybe it's within your existing
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  e-mail list and experiment with that and saying this is a new
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  beta offer that I'm testing. I'm going to take the first five
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  people that come through and then after that this offer has
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  been completed with you, I'm going to get some feedback and
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  some information from you. That is a way of taking action
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  versus just sitting wondering and waiting.
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  Oh, do I have all the website copy ready yet?
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  Oh, do I have this ready yet? Is this perfect yet?
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  How can you go ahead and get feedback to give yourself like
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  feedback, some kind of data point, some kind of action to
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  then give yourself clarity to spark what is working, what's
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  not working before anything was quote UN quote ready.
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  So what's one thing that you've been waiting to perfect before
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  you start? So that would be I would a
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  reflection I have for you is like, what's something that
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  you're waiting to like neatly package with a bow and you're
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  waiting for it to be perfect before you start it?
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  That's something you probably need to take action on.
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  So sit with that and see what comes up.
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  The last point that I want you to have here is that having a
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  starting point helps you build momentum, right?
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  If you have like you're trying to have everything executed in
• 9:02
  the perfect plan ever, it will start to slow you down.
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  So you don't necessarily like again, this is for my folks who
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  are the overthinker, the over planner, because I do believe in
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  plans, but not if you're someone who's been sitting on your plan,
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  you're researching, you're thinking for too long, then you
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  you don't need an ID plan. You do not need a color-coded
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  system or productivity overhaul. That's one of my favorites too
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  of like, oh, I just don't think I'm productive enough.
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  I don't, you know, I think there's this, this and that
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  that's holding me back from productivity.
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  Listen, y'all, my clients are very neuro divergent and me too.
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  So like it's not about like making yourself perfectly
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  productive or color coding the system or anything.
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  Those things of course help. But there's also the part of if
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  you are sitting in the research mode, in the planning mode,
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  where you are potentially not taking action and creating a
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  little bit of avoidance in your life, that's OK.
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  I'm, I'm gently calling that out.
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  So what you need is a first step, just one step, one step,
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  one baby step that will help make sure that you're moving
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  forward, that it's in alignment with what you want to do, like
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  whether it's your energy, where it's currently at, your goals
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  and your values. And that's what creates actual
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  movement and momentum in the right direction.
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  So thinking about that for yourself, of the things that
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  I've been hoarding idea wise and goals wise, what is it that I
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  can do 1 little baby step out of that huge pot of things to just
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  make me have action forward, right?
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  So that way I'm not just stuck in planning mode.
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  So I had a client who was definitely overwhelmed by her
• 10:26
  growth goals. So she's a startup.
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  And so she has really, really big goals in general.
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  And I think for her, she was kind of like, Oh my gosh, like
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  we need to launch some new products.
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  We have to look at our audience growth.
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  If you look at the funnel, look at our client, like our our
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  audience retention, our customer retention, like all these
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  different pieces that were coming up for her.
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  And so she was just like, I just don't know, like all these
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  things are important. I'm not sure where to start.
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  I have to hit these goals. We want to get some more
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  investors. Bop, bop, bop, bop, bop.
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  And so the biggest thing was like, OK, if these are the, if
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  this is like these are the goals, what's the most important
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  goal? What's #1 let's focus on that.
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  And then what if you were to list them out?
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  Are the things that you could do in order to help move that goal
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  forward? Great.
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  Now let's rank them by priority. What's most important.
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  Now let's start with the first one.
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  Like that's it. Work on that and let's see how
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  it goes, right? Like we don't have to reinvent
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  the wheel and like make sure we have captured every single thing
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  and action to every single thing because we get overwhelmed.
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  That's a lot. And we feel like we're failing.
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  And so we don't even want to start because we want to have
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  the perfect plan. So if that like resonated for
• 11:28
  you in any way, shape or form, let me know because then you're
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  probably one of my clients coming in soon.
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  I just want to say that. So my reflection for you is if
• 11:37
  you could just focus on like one thing a month that you know is
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  really going to move you forward, like it's going to help
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  you take action, actual action towards your goals versus being
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  stuck in research or planning mode.
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  What would it be? So pick one thing, maybe just
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  give it like 10 hours for the next month, right?
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  One thing that even why in action that you haven't, if you
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  were to carve out 10 hours for next month to focus in on it,
• 12:00
  how would that look? What do you think that would
• 12:01
  look like? And let me know what they would
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  be. Because here is the thing, this
• 12:05
  is again for my planners, my overthinkers, the endless
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  researchers. I'm telling you, you don't need
• 12:10
  a plan. You need to like 1 starting
• 12:11
  point to get you started and move the ball forward.
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  So if you heard this and you're like I would like help with
• 12:17
  this, I'm probably your coach. I'm most likely have your coach
• 12:20
  when it comes to this because this is a big thing that comes
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  up. I am also a recovering over
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  planner, over researcher who has moved into more so taking
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  action. So just know I empathize also,
• 12:32
  even though I'm giving some hard truths.
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  So you can always figure out how to work with me by going to my
• 12:36
  website, which is www.dannytan.com.
• 12:40
  That's DANITA n.com and that's where you can learn more about
• 12:43
  private coaching and how it's like to work together and what
• 12:46
  it's like to work together. I always recommend that you book
• 12:49
  a call, whether you're ready to do coaching or not, book a call.
• 12:51
  It's great to just meet each other and get like a good idea
• 12:54
  of like what it's like to potentially work together.
• 12:56
  You get to learn about coaching. You don't have to necessarily
• 12:59
  commit to coaching on that call. And also you get to check for
• 13:02
  each other's energy. I don't always say yes to
• 13:04
  everyone that I work with. I actually like to meet them
• 13:05
  first to see if we'd be a good fit and to make sure that their
• 13:08
  goals are aligned with the kind of goals that I usually help
• 13:10
  with. So just know that as well.
• 13:12
  And so if not, I will see you next week and hopefully you
• 13:16
  found a tidbit of this helpful and talk to you soon.