Follow Us
Posts Tagged ‘Jamie Escalante’
What To Do When You Can’t Do Everything Thursday, October 14th, 2010
One of the most prevalent struggles that I hear from business owners is that they don’t see their projects through from start to completion and the primary reason for this is that they get overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done.
Has this ever happened to you?
I am pretty sure it’s happened to everyone. So provided that you have an idea that you need to implement for your business and you feel pretty good about moving forward how do you keep yourself from being overwhelmed?
Our brains are tricky. On the right side you have the ability to coordinate multiple things in time and space whereas your left brain take more of a linear, step by step approach. What makes this duality even more challenging is that you need both of these functions to start and complete a project.
The right brain take a look at the big picture. It’s the opposite of linear. It’s the fire hose. You need to be able to look at things from a 30,000 ft viewpoint and start thinking creatively about how a certain project is going to be put together and implemented. For instance, if you have anew product coming out, you have to start asking questions like; How will this product be best delivered? How will it be best experienced? What are some by-products that make the product even more appealing? For these types of questions, your right brain is essential.
Once you dial in the big picture questions you then need you right brain to start mapping out processes for putting this abstract concept into concrete terms. This concept reminds of the movie Stand and Deliver which is based on the true story of math teacher, Jaime Escalante. Jaime is teaching at an underfunded school that is not known for its academics and he decides that he is going to teach Calculus. When he introduces the concept of Calculus to his students they are extremely overwhelmed by the totality of learning something that seems so far beyond what they have done. Jaime’s mantra in the movie? Take it step by step.
Taking it step by step is the key to the completion of projects large and small.
If you find that your business is overwhelming you. The first thing to do is take a step back and look at all that your business is and compare it with what you want it to be. Then diagnose the easiest and most productive things that you can accomplish for your business. But the key is that you may freak out when you see all that needs to be done but push through it. It will pass once you start breaking it down into steps.
Jaime Escalante’s students were fortunate that they had a coach help them break their business down step by step. If you are having trouble breaking down the steps, a coach can help you with that as well.