I’m a thinker and a planner. I can spend hours with a notepad or an iPad just pondering, drawing mind maps and considering scenarios. While that’s very useful in some situations, it’s not great for making anything happen.

Before I did the 30 Day Challenge (which I talk about a lot, because it was such a pivotal point in my journey), I spent many hours trying to figure out what I wanted to do for work.

But the beauty of the approach suggested by John (Williams) and by Marianne Cantwell in her book*, Be a Free Range Human, is that by taking an action like speaking to someone, or sharing a blog, or setting a deadline for a small event, you commit to trying it.

And by trying it, you learn what works about the idea. Whether you enjoy doing it, whether it is sustainable to do more than once, whether people are interested in the output of your idea, how they talk about a problem you’re solving, what they really need, and if it involves payment how much they are prepared to pay.

One of the first things I tried in my self-employed life that wasn’t related to my main freelance work, and that was offered in return for payment, was 1:1 social media training. I’d been to a networking meeting, identified a need, and the next month went back with a flyer advertising my offer. I had a few clients and enjoyed learning about their businesses and working with them, but after a while realised that this wasn’t something I wanted to spend all my time doing. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t tried it.

Something else I have found that helps me is blogging. Like this blog. This blog was set up to share my story – my journey from full-time employee to part-time self-employed creative accountability guide and freelance project director. By writing the blog, I’m thinking through my experiences and choosing how to use them to communicate a useful message for other people.

But, it’s important that I actually share the blog. If all I do is write, it’s beautifully cathartic for me, but essentially it would just be an online journal. So the sharing part is important – on social media, and actually telling people about it in conversations, sending them the link so they can explore it for themselves.

And one final example of taking action; I decided to trial a 6 week course with friends for a low cost a few months ago. It was originally a project I was going to set up for myself, but I felt inspired to share it and see if anyone else fancied joining me.

And by taking action and trying this out, I learned a huge amount about the practical aspects of course development. It helped me make the decision on a new angle for my business. It showed me that courses take a lot of work to develop, even short ones. It introduced me to a few new tools, and it made me record some videos, which is way out of my comfort zone!

Is there something you’ve been thinking about but haven’t yet taken any action towards? Why not pick up the phone, or send an email to someone? See what happens…..

PS. I’ve just announced to my newsletter subscribers that I’m trialling a Zoom writing workshop idea. I’d like to run 1 hour workshops where I give a few prompts and participants write and then share what they’ve written (if they want to). I have no idea whether the concept will work, or whether it will be something I want to run on a regular basis. So the only way to find out is to offer it at a low cost and try doing it. If that’s an idea that appeals to you, contact me here to see whether I’m going ahead with it.

*Affiliate link, which means that if you follow the link and make a purchase I receive a small commission for referring you.