Do this when you don’t know what to do next!
I’m sure I’m not the only entrepreneur that struggles to know what to do next! Here’s what to do when you don’t know what to do next!
Even if you have complete clarity about what you’re creating and where you’re headed, navigating the process can be tiresome, and it’s not something that you do once and forget about, but it comes up again and again.
I think this is even more of a challenge for solo-entrepreneurs, as they often don’t have a clear pathway for the evolution of their businesses. Nor do they have a ready team to use as sounding board for discerning the direction to take.
So unless you always instinctively know the next steps to take in your business, a lot of time and energy can be taken up in navigating the process.
They say necessity is the mother of invention! I’m certainly finding this to be true. So having found myself staring into space, or rather the modern-day version, my computer, on one too many an occasion, I decided to create a process especially for these moments of confusion and procrastination.
I share with you the process below. I hope it helps you to get the waters flowing again towards your mission and your genius!
What Now Process, for when you don’t know what to do next!
- Intention. Set intention for Service – to serve.
- Connect. Get quiet. Connect deeply to yourself using whatever means work for you.
This could be, for example, Meditation, Yoga, walking in nature, connecting to your breath, dancing, doing something creative, whatever it takes! Ideally something that re-connects you to your body. Even a few minutes can be enough. - Remember. Remind yourself what you’re here for.
What is your Mission/Quest?
Why did you start this journey?
What do imagine feeling when you get there?
How do you want to feel along the way?
Who am I? – What are the particular gifts that you bring to the service of all?
What’s my Work? How are you serving? - Focus. What is the particular aspect that is unfolding now?
Write down some words that describe the stage you’re at now.
Where are you on the journey?
What’s needed now?
What’s emerging? - Expand. Brainstorm Ideas of things that would help towards the aspect in focus.
Use mind-maps and any other brainstorming techniques to generate ideas of actions you could take. You can also brainstorm with someone else. - Contract. Reduce your ideas to up to 3 tasks.
You can reduce the ideas in a couple of ways, either more intuitively or analytically or using both.
Intuitively
Go through the list one by one, imagine doing the task and observe how you feel as you contemplate each one. Observe what happens in your thoughts, emotions and pay particular attention to how your body reacts.
What feels good to do?
What would flow?
Select the ones which feel more energising.
Analytically
Score each idea on a number of factors, such as ease and speed of implementation, impact, estimated return etc.
What would give most impact for effort expended?
Choose the tasks which score the highest in the metric you came up with. - Review. What fits this moment?
Is this the best way to move forward in my mission right now? - Action.
Take steps towards the task(s) you selected as soon as possible.
Or Get Help
If you’re still stuck with moving forward in your business, sometimes all it takes is having someone to reflect back to you what they’re hearing and provide some perspective and insightful questions. If you feel this would be of benefit, book a call with me to see how I can help.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
