Making Your Big Ideas Happen in 2011
It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a marathon or running a business – momentum is key. If we can take small steps to execute our big, bold business objectives every day in 2011, it will be infinitely easier to stay focused, make great strides, and blast through the roadblocks that inevitably come up. Here are a few tips on how to build and maintain momentum:
- Know that momentum takes time to build. It’s important to set small, realistic goals first. Challenge yourself, but don’t overdo it. Setting achievable goals and experiencing incremental successes will help you build momentum and confidence.
- Carve out a consistent block of time to really move the needle on your big-picture objectives. Particularly if you’re already running a small business and/or managing a team, finding regular time to devote to deep thinking, planning, and execution in a daily way can be extremely challenging. But there is nothing more important.
- Work on your idea/project every day. No seriously, every day. When it comes to momentum, frequency of execution is perhaps more important than the duration of execution. Even if you’re working on your project for just an hour a day that’s enough to keep your objectives and recent activities top of mind.
- Once you really get the momentum going, don’t be afraid. Don’t hold back. When it comes to executing bold ideas, the key is to get moving, and keep moving.
based on research by the Behance team. Behance runs the Behance Creative Network, the 99% productivity think tank, the Action Method task management application, and the Creative Jobs List.
Tracy Ross Comments: These tips are right on in my opinion! Particularly #3 & #4. I doubt there’s been a marketing campaign launched where the implementers weren’t fearful of its success. But you can’t let fear stop you. Investing regular time to developing your idea/project before launching it should build confidence in it and ease your fears. When you work on your idea/project every day, you’ll find it easier to monitor results and make adjustments seamlessly. But you must make sure your method of measuring success and momentum are very clear before you decide on whether it’s working or not. When the momentum begins to build, don’t be afraid to take it to the next level. Remember who your target is and keep watching and learning what they do. Are they developing new habits? Or enhancing old ones? And stay on top of what the competition is doing. Just these few things will ensure you have something to do or learn every day during the time you’ve set aside for your idea/project.