Many creatives who are right brain dominant experience ease at shaping ideas but experience much angst at execution. Their follow-through can be a bit lacking.
But it is not that creatives are not capable of delivering the goods, it’s just that they have to be more deliberate in their focus.
The way to gain clear focus is not that tough.
1. Define a single SMART goal
2. Layout an action plan
3. Maintain and revise an action plan
What’s an action plan? It’s a road map to get you from where you are today to where you want to go, within whatever time frame you define.
How do we do this?
a. The first step is to consider all of the “milestones” that you’ll have to meet along the way. Think big picture of baking a cake.
1. Decide what kind of cake you want.
2. Gather the ingredients.
4. Prepare the ingredients.
b. Then define the “action steps” that you will have to take in order to meet each “milestone,” for example.
4. Prepare the ingredients. (milestone)
1. Get the right size cake pan.
2. Measure the ingredients.
3. Mix and stir the ingredients.
c. With each action step ask yourself, “Can I get help with this?” That is called a resource.
d. After you have built the framework for your action plan you can start to estimate how long it is going to take to complete each action step.
e. Add up that time and you have an estimate for how long it will take to complete each milestone.
Our tendency is to underestimate how long each step is going to take.
When we do this we don’t reach our goals when we want to, we get discouraged, and then we abandon our goal.
Avoid disappointment. Make your best time estimate for each step, then double it.
With clear written focus, reaching your SMART goal will be easier and faster.
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