January 17, 2008

How to un-overwhelm yourself

Change is good. In fact, if you're not changing, you're not growing and if you're not growing, guess what? You're dead. Or dying.

John Jantsch had a good article on the subject of change, The ultimate secret to business growth, in which he urges readers to embrace change because it really is the only way to grow. He offers several good suggestions for doing that, everything from acquiring new skills to demanding what you are worth. Good advice for those whose resist change, something I think many attorneys are guilty of.

I am no exception.

I've had my struggles with Mr. Change. When I get interested in a subject, I often obsess over it. I have to read everything about it and then, compile notes and ideas into piles and then files and then boxes, often never explored again. Or I try something, but even when things go well, I almost always get bored with what I'm doing after a few years, and I'm off in search of the next thing. (Most people call that being an entrepreneur. My wife uses a few different words.)

The last few months are a good example. I decided I want to expand my online empire by starting a blog (this one) and that has led to a quantum of ideas: additional blogs, static "lead capture" web pages, discussion forums, social networking, podcasts, and I'm just getting started. I filled countless legal pads with ideas and variations on those ideas and then re-writing the variations to see how they looked. I researched keywords, target markets, and domain names. More than one day was spent doing nothing but thinking and listening to hours of recorded information, providing even more food for thought. And days surfing the Internet!

And so I found myself laden with ideas (good ones, actually) and not knowing what to do. I didn't trust my judgement anymore, couldn't make a decision. I was overwhelmed. I wanted to change, but couldn't.

I'll admit, it's better to have too many choices than not enough. The online world is fascinating, still truly a frontier. But overwhelming, nevertheless.

I think part of the problem is that I have almost unlimited time available and, according to Parkinson's law, "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion." I tried giving myself an artificial deadline but I overrode my authority (with only a mild reprimand) and sent myself back to my big green "daddy chair" for another time out.

Finally. . . eureka!

The solution was something I did years ago when I was similarly stymied in the writing of my marketing course: I gave myself permission to fail. You see, when you are a bit of a perfectionist like I am, you don't resist change so much as sabotage it. I remember back in school purposely not studying for exams because then, if I did poorly, I had a perfect excuse–hey, I didn't study! And if I did well, okay, I'm just naturally gifted.

And so giving yourself permission to fail, to make mistakes and risk criticism, was for me, the only way to change. I simply chose one idea (and what I chose not only felt right, it was the logical choice as well) and began. And once I had begun, I had to finish it. And, so far, so good.

If you are overwhelmed and don't know what to do, do something. Choose your best idea and get started on it. If you're wrong, try something else.

If you are going to fail, do it quickly. That way, you can choose something else. One nice thing about the Internet is that it allows you to do exactly that. Put up a page and send traffic to it and you'll know, sometimes in a matter of minutes, whether you have something or you don't.

Last thought: you are better than you think you are. Giving yourself permission to fail will unleash the creative genius within you and soon, you'll say to yourself (and post it on your blog), "What was I so worried about?"