Taking the Next Step

This contributor post was written by Tiffany Moore.

Q: How do you eat an elephant?

A: One bite at a time.

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about vision and how important it is to have a clear plan for what you really truly want your business to be.

This week’s post is all about action.

While vision is the road that we take to get our business where it needs to be, action is the car that allows us to move down that road and actually get somewhere!

Without action, vision means nothing.

So where does that leave you?

You have your vision. Awesome. You know why this is important. Great. Now what?

So often, it’s easy to get stuck there: now what?

“Eek! But my vision is so big and cool and awesome, it’s scary! I just can’t understand how I’d ever get from here to there,” says the artist who then buries her head in the sand which is one very effective way of getting nowhere fast.

How do you do it? How do you hold the vision while not letting the possibility of what can be paralyze you into not doing a thing?

You step outside of the vision and take the very next obvious step.

The next obvious step: If you are dreaming of opening up your own etsy shop so that someday you can spend all of your working hours making homemade jam in your beautiful kitchen but haven’t ever sold jam before, the next obvious step is not to research press releases and commercial kitchen locations.

The next obvious step is to make some jam that people will trade you money for.

The vision is what helps you determine what kind of decision to make and what choices will drive you. Where you are now (here. right now. get really real about this!) is what helps you determine what the next obvious step will be.

Trust this: those next-obvious-steps will get you to your vision if you have patience and keep taking them. Making the vision big and scary and impossible will not.

Which do you choose?

*image via UUPP: Do Small Things with Great Love

PS. What are your biggest struggles with your creative business? Time management, making time for yourself, trying to fit it all in? I’d love to hear about it for future posts!

Tiffany Moore, co-founder of Teahouse Studio is an artist, life coach, change agent and magic maker. She helps creatives live their happiest, most sparkly lives (starting NOW) and thinks that everyone in the world is beautiful, including you.