How to Turn Overwhelm into Order

Imagine you have a dream to hike the Appalachian Trail. It’s over 2000 miles of mountainous terrain and changing altitudes.

Some people will dream about this trip their entire lives, but never go. The very thought of hiking over 2000 miles seems unimaginable or unrealistic, and so they push the dream aside forever.

Others may feel intense excitement, romanticize the quest, succumb to their whim, and fly to the trailhead to begin their journey. Without planning, though, they’ll quickly realize that they’re in for a miserable trip. They’ll know instantly that they should have prepared for several months of food, shelter, and clothing. They will most likely feel overwhelm at the idea of facing 2000 miles without a solid plan, turn around and go home.

If you really want to hike the Appalachian Trail, you need to plan ahead, creating small goals along the way.

You need to calculate the number of miles you must walk each day in order to reach your destination on time. If you plan to complete 2000 miles by August 1, and you walk 10 miles a day you will finish in approximately 200 days. If you reverse this timeline you will learn that you need to start your journey in mid-January.

You also need to create a plan for collecting supplies, like where and when you will pick up food and new hiking boots. You need a map, compass, and other gear, and after you’ve carefully planned and gathered your supplies, you are finally ready to embark on your journey. You may still feel a bit of overwhelm, but with a solid plan your chances of succeeding are far greater. And, the more structure you have from the beginning, the more easily you can enjoy the spontaneous freedom of the rest of your journey.

Growing meaningful lifework is like hiking the Appalachian Trail. With a solid plan you can accomplish much and also enjoy spontaneous freedom along the way.

When you have a great idea or vision, knowing where to start can be confusing. Seeing the big picture and turning it into small goals can help you accomplish seemingly impossible tasks.

For example, before I started writing my latest project, Grow Your Lifework Guidebook, I created an outline with 20 chapters, each focusing on a metaphor to help people gain clarity about growing lifework they love.

I wanted the ebook to be somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 words, so each chapter needed to be about 500 – 800 words long. It takes me between an hour and three hours to write draft quality 500-800 words, so I knew that writing this book would take me awhile.

I also knew I didn’t want the book to be too wordy, but instead have fun exercises to help engage people in their growing process. I decided create interactive pages, including a series of hand drawn illustrations to emphasize my points.

After thinking about the end product I planned to create I took out a piece of paper and wrote out every item I would need before I was ready to launch the ebook:

• ebook cover
• final draft
• web content
• web page
• e-junkie account integrated with PayPal
• aweber email sign up
• email announcement
• email content
• editing help (which means other people would be involved)

Each item on the list above includes a variety of steps. Before I created a goal deadline for one step, I estimated the amount of time it would take to complete it. For instance, if I could write 2000 words a day I could conceivably write a draft guidebook of 10,000 words in 5 days.

After estimating the time required for each step, I created a realistic plan starting with today’s date and working my way to a deadline. I know that “life happens” so I included extra time to allow for the unexpected.

Another approach is to determine a deadline and see if you can set reasonable goals for each day. If your deadline means you need to write 10,000 words a day ask yourself if that’s even possible (I tried it; it didn’t work well.). If not, your deadline has to be extended.

Once I create an overarching plan for a project I have an idea of what needs to be done on a daily basis. Every Monday I review my plan and create action steps for my week. It seems like a lot of planning, but it helps me turn my visions and ideas into reality.

Every Monday I create a plan that resembles the above
image and position it so it’s always visible. I
check off each item as it’s completed.

When I’m faced with a choice, I look at my weekly agenda and assess how each possible scenario will impact my goal. If I have to write 2000 words to stay on track, and I’m invited to go hiking with a friend, I know that I will be an entire day behind schedule. If the deadline is flexible, accepting the invitation may be a refreshing change of pace from my busy writing schedule, but if my deadline is not flexible I’ll take a rain check for another day. Having this clarity on a regular basis has proven very useful for me. Making decisions is much easier.

How do you plan your projects? If you simply “go with the flow” and are making your dreams come true, then I wouldn’t change a thing.

But if you have dreams and visions that continually remain dreams and visions, and you really want to turn them into reality, try this system. It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth the effort if it helps you accomplish your goals.