He wants to be a bad-ass member of the Axe Gang, the most feared gang around, but he’s not mean enough, scary enough, or strong enough to pull it off. 

All of his plans to impress the Gang Boss backfire, his partner in crime is prone to falling asleep, and he’s haunted by a humiliating bullying incident from his childhood.

I feel for the guy. Not that he didn’t get to be in the gang, but that he didn’t know how to get what he wanted. 

Which is as perfect a segue as I’m going to get for the admission that I’ve been feeling like I don’t know how to get where I want to go with my business.  

Destination Unclear

Several months ago I decided it was time to shift my business model online.

Theoretically, it oughta be easy enough:
Define vision + set goals + make plan + execute plan = Success!

Practically, I got lost somewhere around define vision. You see, I very quickly found myself wandering around the Lands O’ I-have-no-idea-what-it-actually-entails which was then confounded by I-don’t-know-what-I-don’t-know. Confusing, you know? 

So it’s been a period of coming back to the basics: clarifying purpose, defining niche, experimenting and getting educated–hence classes, podcasts, interviews, workshops, blogs, reading, listening, watching. 

Destination Clear… or is it?

In Kung Fu Hustle, our wanna-be bad guy keeps trying different schemes to get accepted into the gang, until after one last humiliation, he gives up.

Which is, of course, when two bad-guy goons show up and take him to the boss. He’s given an almost impossible task and, somehow, he slides through that sliver of “almost” and earns his place in the gang. 

The problem is, he’s out of place in the gang. You could say that he made progress but, was it in the right direction?

Destination Kinda Clear

I know I’m going in the right direction, that much I’m clear on. It’s just that in the deluge of new incoming information, the direction has lacked context, which pretty much leaves me feeling lost. 

It’s a little Kafka-esque. You show up for a meeting and there’s a sign on the door saying the meeting has been moved. You go to the new location and there’s a sign on the door, again saying that the meeting has been moved. You go to the next new location and it’s the same thing. You keep thinking you’re at the right place but finally realize you don’t know what’s going on. That’s been me. 

[A few side notes:

1. I feel like I'm really out on a limb here because people seem to assume that since I'm "The Organizer" I must have all my s#@t together. Welcome to being human.
2. Another confession: I don't have a coach. (This should elicit a gasp of horror.)
3. I've shared this little tidbit before: one of my clients several years ago interviewed over 100 6-figure solopreneurs to see if there were similarities among them. There was. Each and every one worked with a coach. Is it ego? Is it being cheap? Why in the world do I think this wouldn't apply to me? Anywho.
4. I fibbed just a little when I wrote "don't have a coach". I almost have a coach--my first appointment is on Thursday.

/side note]

Destination… screw it, just have a good time

Let’s face it. Sometimes we don’t know where we’re going, and that’s OK. Not only that, it can be FUN.

Honestly, once I get past the self-inflicted disappointment of not having a new marketing engine in place, several products completed and linked up with auto responders and shopping cart, and a couple of collaborations under my belt, I admit that this process has been a blast.

I’m learning about a whole new world out there filled with awesome people doing fantastic work. It’s full of integrity, people showing up to help, and folks looking to build community.

Where are you right now? 

Conveniently we find ourselves at the end of the year, i.e. the perfect time to take stock of your current situation. Hopefully your year has been more fluid than mine, though I hear it’s been quite the challenge for many. 

Wherever you are and whatever phase of your business you’re in, you’re in the perfect place for you and that’s completely awesome!

If, for whatever reason, you don’t share the enthusiasm, let’s make sure that your expectations are in line with your status. Because if there’s one other thing I am completely convinced of, it’s that:

 The Era of Struggle is Over.
(Remember that you heard it here first, folks.

With that in mind, do you need to get some reality check action on any of the following?

1. Easify production expectations. If you’re in the process of reinventing yourself or in a major educational phase for your business, give yourself a chance to learn the lay of the land and assimilate what you’re learning. 
2. Be honest with yourself. Is it time to get help? Don’t be like the dork above (oh, that was me) insisting that you can go it all alone. Get the clear eyes of someone who’s gone before you. 
3. Ask good questions. As silly as this one sounds, it’s powerful. Asking a specific question pushes you to drill down to the real issue at hand. For example, Instead of asking “What should I do next?” ask,”What is the best next step for getting clarity on my niche?” Then be patient, the answer may need to percolate while you sleep and then show up the next day.

I know this is the time of year that we typically talk about goals and goal setting, and let me tell you, I’ve been researching some fascinating stuff on the subject that you may not have heard before. I look forward to sharing this stuff with you soon. Real soon. 

For now, you can tip toe through Lance’s musing on goal completion in his column below in The Not-So-Simple Life.

Destination Wildly Fantastic Success

You’re probably wondering what happened with the hero of Kung Fu Hustle (of course you knew he’d be the hero). 

(SPOILER ALERT!!) Well, he got beaten to a pulp which, instead of killing him, unleashed his chi and thereby allowed him to become a kung fu master in the style of the House of the Palm of God as he was destined to be.

I personally am opting for the metaphorical beating which, as far as I’m concerned has been fulfilled in this past year of struggle through epic attempts to run through water.

2012 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon, a symbol of good fortune and sign of intense power. For ALL of us. 

Are ready for your chi to be unleashed?

In my last workshop series, one of the participants, we’ll call her Lyn, questioned my notion of “letting systems do the work”.

We were talking about not using the head as a storage space. When we got to the part about using a contact manager or address book for people’s phone numbers and other useful digits, Lyn spoke up: “We baby boomers have been told to memorize phone numbers to keep the mind active. You know, ‘use it or lose it’ and you’re talking about emptying the mind?!”

Wow. Filling the head with info that can easily be captured in a simple system completely goes against the fundamental premise of the natural professional philosophy: free the mind for being. Being the fabulous people that we are. Being present in the moment. “You’d rather memorize phone numbers?” I asked.

“I’m just saying that’s what we’ve been told,” she replied.

Mamma mia! Could this really be a helpful practice?!? Turning to the Internet for answers, here’s what I found out.

The major player on mind health and aging is the National Institute on Aging (NIA).

They published a report “Understanding Memory Loss” that suggests the following to keep the mind active: Learn a new skill, volunteer, spend time with others, use memory tools, place things in the same place every day, get lots of rest, exercise and eat well, not too much alcohol, get help if you feel depressed for weeks at a time.

In other words, all basic stuff to stay healthy. No magic memorize-phone-number bullets here.

Hmm, this train of thought was too limiting. Sure memory is important, but what else is critical for thriving in our information age? I’d venture to guess that cultivating the mind to excel on a daily basis would promote long-term memory and brain health as well.

A super article turned up that was published in Time Magazine called How to Get Smarter, One Breath at a Time by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen.

Her results from interviewing numerous professionals and researchers pointed to the same conclusion: meditation or mindfulness training conditions our minds to do everything we want it to do and more.

“Meditation,” she wrote “directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory.”

That was from five years ago! Since then, there have been numerous studies is support of this. One of them, which I’d like to share in a future article, clearly demonstrates the effects of meditation on people’s ability to focus and resist distractions—great tools for the natural professional!

Training your attention on your breath, reaps all kinds of benefits. It reduces stress, enables you to better handle and recover from emotional situations, promotes insightful analysis, facilitates learning… About as close to a magic pill as you’re going to get!

OK, these are benefits worth striving for. Phew, that clinches it—Lyn, get those phone numbers out of your head and into your digital address book!

**********
Additional links:
The Mayo Clinic suggested similar stay healthy techniques as the NIA: Stay mentally active, socialize regularly, get organized, focus, eat a healthy diet, physical activity, and manage chronic conditions. Memory loss: 7 tips to improve your memory

A Harvard Medical School reviewed explanation on the Aetna Intelihealth websitedd provides a brief synopsis of how we learn which supports the idea that cultivating attention is a very worthwhile practice.

[I'm doing some digital house-cleaning and found this column hadn't been posted on the blog. It was originally published in the October 2009 publication of the Nevada City Advocate.]

Consider this: your cluttered mind isn’t a by-product of the external stuff, it’s the cause of the craziness.

When we say that we want things to be simpler, we often mean that we want more time, less complication, and more organization. The logic then follows that once those external factors are under control, we’ll take on the constant mental chatter that jabbers away all day.

Consider this: your cluttered mind isn’t a by-product of the external stuff, it’s the cause of the craziness.

Just as you wouldn’t expect a calm, sunny day at the beach during a hurricane, it’s impractical to expect a serene day when your mind is frantic.

This shift in perspective is huge! Instead of beginning the attack on your schedule or piles, you start by stopping. Your chattering mind, that is.

Deep relaxation soothes the sympathetic nervous system (that’s the system that produces stress hormones). In other words, calming your body and mind is akin to hitting your internal reset button. And if you’re calm inside and out, then even a hurricane probably won’t be able to throw you off track.

On the flip side, keeping your insides whirling around can cause you physical distress, even beyond the moment of “stress out.”

According to Patt Lind-Kyle, a local author who studies the effects of meditation on the brain: “Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol are toxic to the system if they are not released within about 90 minutes.”

Most of us have become so used to stress that we actually feel like something is missing without it. It can become like an addiction and be just as damaging. You can break the cycle by deprogramming the stress addiction — and inviting peace in. You do this by cultivating a calm mind.

Stop the stress addiction cycle by calming your mind with these activities:

• get a massage
• sit by the river
• spend time in your garden
• breathe deeply and slowly.

You know yourself best. What activities calm you down? Let them draw you into a space of well-being. Not only will you feel better, you’ll find yourself discovering creative solutions to sticky problems, making wiser decisions, and reconnecting with your priorities.

These are life-affirming activities with enormous positive impact! They represent the difference between getting lost in the details and celebrating the beauty of your life.

It might sound counterintuitive, but if you want more order in your life, take a break from the piles. Invite your mind and body to rest like the still waters in a deep, refreshing pool.

Simplify is written by Shawn Tuttle. She can be reached by calling 530-205-5775 or by visiting www.projectsimplify.com.

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Photo credits:
but today by goldsardine

[I'm doing some digital house-cleaning and found this column hadn't been posted on the blog. It was originally published in the September 2009 publication of the Nevada City Advocate.]

You don’t have to surrender to an increasingly complicated world.

One of the most common conversations I hear around town hinges on a variation of simplifying: “Everything is so complicated! I need to simplify!”

While this sentiment grew steadily through the late ’90s, it has become the topic du jour now that we are in the Crises Era (economy, health care, state budget, housing, etc).

While it’s so easy to say simplify, I find it fascinating how much this little word encompasses.

What does it mean to simplify? Ask 10 people and you will get 10 different answers. Do we talk in terms of the realms we can simplify: time, activities, stuff? Or do we talk in terms of results: more free time, less stress, peace of mind?

Or, perhaps, we can take guidance from Satish Kumar, editor of Resurgence: “It’s about less ego and more imagination, less complication and more creativity, less glamour and more gratitude, less attention to appearance and more attention to essence.”

We are living in such an amazing time. You’ve been here watching it all unfold. When we look at our recent past, painful stories of unchecked growth take the forefront.

On the personal level, we are feeling the pain of excess. Too much stuff, too many responsibilities, too many bills, too much stress.

The pendulum has swung out mightily; it’s time to rediscover our centers. And in that place within, we will find peace with the world, respect for each other, gratitude for all we have and acceptance of what we have created.

This is the underlying desire I hear when people say: “Everything is so complicated! I need to simplify!”

With that declaration, the journey to simplify begins.

The urge to purge, the willingness to let go of whatever is no longer useful and the desire to slough off the old will follow. And then we dig and scrape and wipe out the muck until all that’s left is a clear, shiny reflection smiling right back at us.

We can complain over the unfairness of last year’s lifestyle being taken away from us. We can either quake in fear of the unknown that looms ahead, or not. This is a choice we get to make.

We can move forward with a new perspective. We can look to the horizon of our own souls and consider that we are at the dawn of a new day. We can celebrate the essence of life lived to the fullest, roll up our sleeves and simplify!

Simplify is a column written by Shawn Tuttle, the Chief Simplifier at Project Simplify and resident of Nevada City for more than five years. Years of organizing homes and offices has shown me that in the midst of the biggest messes, there is a common element that allows for a transformation of your space: the willingness to let go of the habits that created the mess. My column explores how this same motivation might shape our futures — both on personal and community levels. She can be reached by going to projectsimplify.com or by calling 530-205-5775.

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Photo credit:
Tunnel by Michael Cavén

For many people, bill paying is a bit stressful so the easier you make it on yourself the better. (If your bill paying situation is dialed in and hassle-free, Congrats! You can skip on to the next section.)

Here are 3 ways to simplify your bill pay process.

The approach is to address the various phases of the process.

1. Set incoming bills apart from the riffraff.Take all incoming bills-to-be-paid straight to your designated place that is labeled “Bills to Pay”. Unpaid bills shouldn’t touch your kitchen counter, inbox, dining room table, utility drawer, random desktop real estate, or any other sundry place.The designated place can be a folder, basket, letter holder, dedicated drawer, box, you name it. What’s important is that it’s labeled and easy to access. Why label when you know what it it? Because it states intention.

   If you are paperless or get your bills via email, same thing. Have one way (for ex. a tag or label in your email program) or place (for ex. a folder) to indicate their “to be paid” status.

   Herding your incoming bills to one spot is an excellent be-kind-to-my-future-self habit.

2. Stay on top of deadlines by designating two days a month to “Pay Bills”.1st and 15th; 5th and 20th; 10th and 25th–whatever makes sense for your bills’ due dates.Track those dates as you would an important deadline. If your task manager has due date functionality, use that. If you rely on your calendar to remind you, enter it there.

   This allows you to apply valuable brain juice to more important things than remembering bills’ due dates.

3. Pay bills via online bill pay.There are two main ways to pay bills online: through each vendor’s website or through your bank’s online bill pay system. I prefer a hybrid approach based on factors mentioned below.
   1. Pay through each vendor’s website individually.
      This method is preferred for bills that you want to set up on auto pay. Bills that have relatively consistent amounts due every month like phone, utilities and loan payments are ideal candidates for auto pay.

      Cautionary note: Money zaps out of your account like clockwork with auto pay, so if you tend to run a really low balance, you could be in for some rude surprises.

   2. Pay through your bank’s online bill pay system.
      I prefer this method for irregular monthly bill amounts such as credit cards and people I pay for services. After the initial set up, paying is as easy as entering the amount you want to pay and on what date– your bank does the rest.

      In addition to the joy of leaving behind stamps and envelopes, you get quick access to payment history for each vendor you pay this way.

      Cautionary note: You have to remember to go in and pay bills (easy when you track your Pay Bills date in calendar or task manager).

      Paying bills online drastically reduces the amount of time spent writing checks, prepping envelopes, and hunting around for proof that last month’s payment was made.

Breaking down the bill paying process in to its different phases makes for an easier experience for you, bills paid on time, and minimal time spent wondering about payments. That’s the way it should be–easy!

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Photo credits:
MmHnCnChBkMt.jpg by Hello Turkey Toe

[This column originally published in the February 2011 publication of the Nevada City Advocate.]

Recently a fellow Toastmaster began her speech with the idea that nature abhors a vacuum. “How else would you explain that whenever you make space in your schedule, it gets filled immediately?” she pondered.

Not being familiar with the saying, “nature abhors a vacuum” I looked it up and found that Aristotle is attributed with the original horror vacui.

The postulate has since evolved into an idiom to express the idea that empty or unfilled spaces are unnatural as they go against the laws of nature and physics. (Bad news for kitchen counters and hall closets, eh?)

While this could be good news for a Simplifier such as myself (job-security and all), I’m too much an optimist to agree with such a pessimistic view of the unmitigated existence of clutter.

Happily, I subsequently discovered that scientists have pretty much debunked the original notion that nature abhors a vacuum.

Turns out that thermo-dynamic proponents have attributed this void-filling phenomenon to the effects of air pressure caused by the earth’s gravitational field. Therefore, what we’re actually concerned about is air pressure and not, as previously feared, spontaneous vacuums.

“But what about the schedule filling phenomenon? That’s real!” You might wonder, and rightly so.

Fortunately, air pressure has no effect on your schedule. (Whew!) Your schedule is, however, subject to do-more pressure.

The do-more pressure principle, in case you aren’t familiar with it, was discovered in the late 20th Century and explains the action of new commitments to viciously and thoroughly fill every nook and cranny in your schedule.

Frightening indeed. You might be wondering how to resist such an insidious pressure.

The trick is to create your own force field that exceeds the strength of do-more pressure, thereby leaving space in a newly opened up schedule for fun, exercise, family time and treks to the river.

HOW TO create such a protective force field:

• Evoke a strong, clear vision of how you want to spend your time. Visualizations are powerful ammunition when wily commitments attempt to infiltrate.
• Protect the time that will be “opening up” in your schedule. Think up activities that support your vision and embed them in your schedule.
• Acknowledge that it takes effort. Repelling the tendency to do more takes vigilance and action. Being prepared to protect your time sends a loud message that you are serious!

You can resist do-more pressure with these three steps. Doing so will show your support of the cause to assign “nature abhors a vacuum” to the Hoover Vacuum Co.

Shawn Tuttle is author of Simplify and the forthcoming book, The Natural Professional Handbook. Sign up for newsletter at ProjectSimplify.com to find out about upcoming events.

My Simplify article for the February issue of the Nevada City Advocate has been posted on online. The editor called it: How we change the world without Big Brother.

It’s more about my dream for the world I’d like to leave for my unborn niece (actually, a nephew could just as well be brewing in her belly) than a throw back to George Orwell’s 1984.

Enjoy!

—

Happy Holidays Are a Cinch When You Simplify Away the Grinch

by Shawn Tuttle

You heard it here first—December is officially anti-grinch month. To help you keep your cool through the holidays, I’ve compiled a wide variety of simplifying practices that cover everything from ToDo lists to schedule planning to reconnecting with your Home Base.

Pick a few tips to focus on, or just use this overview as a motivation to revive atrophied habits of peace and goodwill. Either way, here are three different gift bags full of tips to help you be a shining star in a season fraught with wacky drivers, shopping mania, and culinary gluttony.

Home Base

“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
-Maya Angelou

Home Base is your special zone in which you feel a deep peace with yourself and the world.

While this place is always within you, challenges and distractions have a wicked way of pulling you away from it. On the one hand this is a major bummer. On the other hand, you can look at it as an opportunity to learn how to regain control of your life. The more you act and make decisions from this home base place, the smoother life will flow.

Benefits (just a few of the many!):

• Reconnects you with your priorities. Lets the chafe float away as you remain solidly pointed toward the meaningful in your life.
• Provides you with the opportunity to design your days through visualization. In your mind’s eye, see and feel yourself breezing through situations you feel apprehensive about.
• Diffuses challenges. Helps you remain objective in an otherwise charged situation.
• Helps calm your para-sympathetic nervous system, which reduces stress hormones. Your body should reset daily in this way for optimal health.

Finding home base through relaxation

Relaxation is a low-cost, do-it-yourself road back home. Establishing a daily quiet time routine to calm your mind and body builds this reminder into your schedule. 10-20 minutes is all you need. The more you practice coming back to your home base, the easier it gets.

Here is one quiet time practice to intentionally come back to home base. Lay in a comfortable

place where you will not be disturbed. Scan your body, one part at a time:

• With your eyes closed, allow your attention to go to your feet; hold here for a deep inhale and full exhale.
• Then allow your attention to go to your ankles and hold for a deep inhale and full exhale.
• Slowly make your way through one body part after another all the way up to your head.

While it’s tempting to fall asleep, stay present through this exercise. (If what you really need is a nap, give yourself permission to take one.)

How can you use relaxation to lead you to home base? Home base resides in your heart. Once you are relaxed, shift your mind to contemplating specific people and situations for which you are grateful. This helps you remember that the real joys in life aren’t found in what can be bought, but in the richness of your experiences. Deeply feeling gratitude for the gifts in your life also enhances your feeling of abundance.

Challenges have a marvelous way of resolving quickly when approached from home base. Barbs and digs from the in-laws can float by you like gently drifting snowflakes.

Planning

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
-Benjamin Franklin

Planning provides the structure and peace of mind to both keep you in your home zone love and breeze through your ToDo list.

Review time

• Each evening, review your schedule for the next day.
• Keep your short list limited to five important items for the day.
• Mentally walk through your itinerary. Check that are you prepared for everything.
• Look at the overall canvas of your day; do you like the picture you’ve painted for yourself?
• Remember to identify when to take your daily quiet time!

Scheduling tips

• Allow for the fact that most activities take longer than you expect. Include prep and clean-up time.
• Pick a day, such as Sunday, when you plan meals and shopping for the upcoming week.
• Remember to include things like hostess gifts and ingredients for potluck dishes.
• Work backwards from important dates. Start as far in advance as possible.
• Set aside and protect family time. Take a leisurely walk, enjoy a cup of tea, eat meals together.
• Use a holiday binder to collect ideas and reminders for next year. You can include holiday recipes, fun family activities, gift ideas, and so on.
• Large chunks of time can be really tough to come by. Schedule the unsavory stuff in small chunks whenever possible. Save the large chunks for enjoying time with loved ones.

Daily Doings

“The secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life, and in elevating them to art.”
-William Morris

Daily doings are what you handle every day. The phrase “Let it be easy!” sums up the goal of this section and gives you a mantra to remember.

Loving the Lists

• Use lists (on paper, not in your head) as storage space.
• Organize lists by store, for ex. grocery store or hardware store.
• Consider working off of a “short list” for the day — let it be doable!

ToDo list tips

• Start each item with verb, and be specific,
  for ex. “Take pie to Reinette”, rather than “Pie”
• Remember that a ToDo item is a one-step activity,
  for ex. Pull out decorations from the basement.
• If a task has multiple steps (for example, Decorate the house) track it on a separate list reserved for projects. Pull out one item at a time for the Todo list.
• Delegate. For example, give yourself the gift of a housecleaner for the season or let a restaurant make dinner for you.

Tricks with timers

• Do 20-minute evening pickup sprints to avoid tiresome marathon clean ups. Set a timer and stop when it goes off.
• Another good use of a timer is to remind yourself that it’s almost time to switch gears and to start cleaning up.

Stay cool and keep your heart warm

• If you feel your mind spinning out, focus your attention on the situation at hand. Mono-task whenever possible to reduce frantic thinking.
• If you feel yourself losing patience in a situation (shallow breathing is a good clue), breathe to the bottom of your lungs and remind yourself that the other person may be having a really bad day. What can you let go of?

Funnel your energies into love and joy this season. That’s the whole point, right? Thank goodness you have tools and the inner resources to masterfully handle most any situation that comes your way. Whether reconnecting with your home base or planning out a smoothly flowing day, make your inner simplifier proud by putting your simplifying skills to good use.

Join the anti-grinch campaign for the rest of 2009 (or take it into 2010—go ahead, I dare ya!). The interesting thing is that you actually get more done when you aren’t wasting energy freaking out about everything that needs to happen. So slow down, keep your pen and paper handy, and take it one day at a time. Let’s keep the Grinch in Who-ville where he belongs!

—

Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

—

You’ve Got to Clear Your Throat if You Want to Sing Your Song

by Shawn Tuttle

"Why don’t you believe you’re ready? Don’t you hear all the great things coming out of your mouth?!"

This was the question I wanted to ask my good friend Leila. “It makes no sense!” I thought. But I get ahead of myself.

Leila has healing, compassionate work to share with the world. For people who have complicated relationships with their bodies, her work is a blessing that can change lives. Through yoga, breath work, essences, and a number of other modalities, she helps people feel comfortable with themselves.

Her successful experience as a yoga teacher makes workshops that combine yoga with other methods the obvious next step. Talking with Leila earlier this month, however, revealed she was at a standstill. She was not manifesting her beautiful ideas. Her mind had done a great job of convincing her that, for one reason or another, she wasn’t ready.

Listening to her concerns and mental roadblocks was like playing back the tapes of my own experience as I struggled with my first workshop offerings years ago:

"I don’t want to commit. What if it’s the wrong thing?"

"I’ll do it after I get more credentials and training."

"I want to put the program together first."

"There are so many things to include, I don’t know how to incorporate them all into the program yet."

"I haven’t decided which demographic to work with; there are so many."

Everybody has these thoughts; some of them have merit, some are just excuses. But whatever they are, if we don’t wrangle them down, they will tie us up in knots.

By putting off our aspirations for another year, our gifts stay securely and safely tucked away. No risk required. Whether writing an article, starting a blog, submitting a painting to a contest, joining a choir, or offering a workshop like Leila, putting ourselves out there can make us feel as if our very soul is on the line. Why expose our hearts to the unforgiving glare of critics and strangers?

Sure it’s uncomfortable. But how else do you get the opportunity to grow in such an enormously satisfying way? How else can you genuinely fulfill your desire to sing your song? Unless you trust that you and only you are the one to do this very thing, and you bring it to life, the world will never get to hear your exquisite song.

You can’t have your moment in the sun if you aren’t willing to open the door and step outside. Martha Graham—dancer, choreographer, and a woman devoted to living life to the absolute fullest—said:

"There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique, and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium, and be lost. The world will not have it."

Your dream is rooted in your heart, and it’s your job to figure out how to express it. Trial and error are fine, exploration is to be expected, evolution is a given—just get it out there and give it a go!

It’s a difficult question to answer, but absolutely necessary:

"How to acknowledge that a challenge is scary and daunting—and then do it anyway?"

Answer: By getting your inner heckler to quit hassling you and get to work supporting you instead.

If you really are ready to flip the script, here are two ways to make the first steps.

The "soft commit"
Give yourself permission to just explore your idea. For Leila’s workshops, she could hypothetically pick an audience, a subject, and then sketch out the who, what, where, why and how on paper. Since she hasn’t said, "I’m doing it!" she sneaks past her mind’s iron grip of fear and perfectionism.

After she does this, she can wonder (hypothetically, of course) what the next step would be. Maybe she’d set a binder to organize the different parts. What would that look like? "Hey, I’ll set one up, just in case. What would a good timeline look like IF I were to hold workshops in April?"

At some point, a firm commitment is necessary. This is where the fifth “W”—when—comes into the picture. But by then, you have so much of the planning process done that the mind will be too concerned with the details to give you a hard time about the big picture.

The "H" word. (Help)
There’s no need to go it alone – reach out and ask for help! Invite someone who has done it before out for coffee. Ask them about details and their experience. If you want to break the paralysis and liberate your lyrical movement, consider working with a coach. Leila and I spent an hour at a park talking strategy and making lists while her daughter played. Just like that, she was making progress!

With another person to spill your dreams to, you can get the flow going enough to break past the Big Picture Blockade.

Whether you use these tools, or some other way to break free, once you bust the dam, you may end up with more than you think you can handle—but that thought right there is the heckler, don’t let him stop you. There are other tools like timelines and ToDo lists that will help you manage the abundance of ideas flowing. Be grateful that you’ve begun to manifest your dream!

Your brain can be trained to be your best friend, or passively allowed to get in your way. The choice is yours. The funny thing is that once you show it that you are serious about your intention, your clever mind will step up to the plate with all of its problem-solving skills to back you up–as long as you keep the goal, your dream, squarely in front of you.

As the saying goes, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Take your journey one step at a time and the universe will help in mysterious, unexpected ways. Magic can happen when you are committed to your heart. 

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.

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Remedies for a Scattered Mind

by Shawn Tuttle

"Freedom to be my own boss!" is the #1 rallying cry for taking the plunge into the self-employment world. Free from bosses telling me what to do and when to do it! Free from wonky co-workers! Free from tech support, free to buy my own office equipment, free to pay for my own health care… Uh-oh. Who’s going to take care of all this stuff?!

Is it really lack of freedom that keeps you from getting what you want? Nope, it’s lack of structure. Don’t get me wrong, I love spontaneity. Absolutely, be spontaneous–but in the areas that thrive with creativity, like attention-grabbing marketing campaigns and new and improved ways to help your clients. But be structured in the areas you want to spend minimal time in, like paper work and record keeping.

Structure doesn’t have to mean a grandiose system requiring extensive setup. The point is to give your brain guidelines so that it can relax, knowing that it doesn’t need to be on call to improvise. Since your mind is so critical for making your stuff happen, your heightened ability to train it on the task at hand not only gets your work done faster, but with less brain-strain.

The following five remedies will help you pull in the reins of your scattered mind so that you can get more done more easily, by focusing. Nothing to buy or configure. Just take a couple scoops of determination, ladle on some perseverance, and top with a dollop of discipline.

1. Zapping, the mindset

Sharpening your decision-making skills enables you to pick up the pace in critical times. It’s too easy to get into a slow waltz pace when in the office for hours at a time. Zap time is sprint time! 15 minutes to Zap that pile of papers or chunk of emails. Turn on the punk music and slam dance! Scan. Assess. Deal. Done. Next. Zap it!

2. One thing at a time, all the way to completion

Take one (and only one) thing at a time, decide, and take it all the way to its destination. Stay focused. Diffused light is nice, but a magnifying glass starts a fire. Get it? We’re all about blazing out the mental junk!

Whether Zapping your desk, a stray pile of papers, your inbox, or the mysterious pile of stuff by your back door…deal with one, and only one, thing at a time, determine its fate, and take that thing to it where it needs to go. This prevents you from asking the same questions about that same thing again. In this case, there is no tomorrow, no such thing as later–this baby wants your attention now!

3. No browsing

Browsing through your inbox is like pushing peas around your plate. That’s right Janie, they’re still there and you cannot feed them to Skippy under the table. No digging through the inbox to find the easy stuff, no skipping emails you don’t really feel like dealing with… Pull in that stray energy. If you pick it up, deal with it. (See how nicely it ties in with one thing at a time and Zapping?) If you are too tired for this, then stay out of the inbox and take a break. Your brain health and freshness are crucial!

4. Single next action

I can feel this one coming on when a client picks up a piece of paper and groans, "Ohhhhh, yeeaahhhh." Obviously she’s been shuffling it around for ages. I want to tell her to buck up! It’s not like it’s a demand from the Grim Reaper threatening to nab her first born. Really now. Instead of responding with dread, disarm it with objectivity by asking "What is it?" and making a super-quick answer. Then ask, "What is the single next action required here?" Either do it right now, or write down the next step on the paper itself, on a sticky, on your ToDo list–whatever your system is for tracking items needing action. The point is to take it to the next step in its lifecycle without having to assess the situation yet again.

5. Protect your focus time

Appointments with yourself shall be held sacred. Whether they are in small chunks of 15 minutes to Zap the inbox, or 2 hours for big project time, stick with your pre-determined intention. Besides the time and mental effort required to resume an activity after interruption, when you let yourself get distracted, you are essentially saying that the activity has no importance. Which is obviously a case of denial, as you wouldn’t be doing it otherwise, right? This is one of the reasons to do small sprints for the maintenance stuff. You can almost always find a way to protect 15 minutes of focus time.

These remedies for a scattered brain are relevant no matter whether your system is paper-based or paperless, or whether you work out of cafes or in a big office. We can suffer from a spinning-out mind anywhere.

Rather than limiting your ability to be spontaneous, reeling in your scattered mind actually gives you the opportunity to have more freedom! We all know that stress kills fun and creativity. Your will and commitment to making these remedies a part of your workflow are all you need to anchor them in your life. Keeping your simplified life moving with these powerful habits will free you up for the important stuff, like getting more clients, brainstorming brilliant solutions to save the world, figuring out how to get paid to go to Italy…

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Shawn Tuttle is founder of Project Simplify.