Ambition can be paralyzing. You reach a point of overwhelm. That constant drive (which is a really good thing) makes you feel like you might be driving off a cliff.

Mike and I battle this periodically. We have so many ideas and projects and dreams and visions.

And yes, we know how to prioritize. We know how to focus on the task at hand, whether that’s getting 5,000 words written, or 10 miles behind us, or committing to the next overseas adventure.

We do a lot.

But there’s so much more we want to do.

Sometimes the answer is slowing down. We’ll go to breakfast and talk it through. Give each other honest feedback about where we see ourselves in the journey, what stops we want to make along the way, and what might need to be cut from the itinerary. (Mike wrote about the need for focus recently in “How Good Ideas Die”)

Slowing down has its merits. Because there’s no point in pushing through if you don’t know where you’re headed and why. That’s when drive turns into spinning your wheels. Going through the motions just to check something off your to-do list, with no clear picture of why you’re doing what you’re doing.

But sometimes you know your why and you still feel overwhelm. You slow down and refocus, but then still find yourself in that state of paralysis.

“Mom, what are you doing?” Ivy asked me.

I’d been staring at a blank page of my notebook, paralyzed. “I don’t know,” I said truthfully. “I don’t even know what I’m doing.” Then, to change the subject, “What are you doing, Ivy?”

“I’m making a list of everything I’m going to do. Jasper and I are going to open a bakery and ice cream shop. We’ll sell donuts and ice cream but also pesto pasta because I love pesto pasta. I also want to have a farm with lots of pugs and sloths. And I’m going to be an artist and in a band.”

When kids talk about the million things they’ll do, we nod and smile and pat them on the head.

But think of everything you’ve done?

I guarantee your list is long. I bet you’d forget two-dozen experiences that other people consider part of what makes you amazing.

I’ve worked on a farm and a fishing boat. As a clown and a waitress. I write books and travel the world and helped my daughters start a cotton candy business. I’ve worked in television and flown small planes and been beaten by birch branches wielded by an elderly Russian woman in a sauna outside of Moscow.

If overwhelm makes you feel like your life story has been put on hold, go talk to a child about what they’ll do with their life. Make a list of the experiences that have already helped shape yours.

This is a reset to remind you that potential has no limits. After all, would you tell a child they can’t do all the things they’ve rattled off? No. Because they can. All of that and more.

Knowing that, and all that has brought you to the present day of your life, would you put any limits on the potential for your future? I hope not.

Ambition is a gift. Even when it seems like too much. It can propel us forward even when we feel stuck or paralyzed.

Ambition puts us in difficult places, but that also means we’re learning and striving. We want more for our lives and our loved ones than a miserable daily grind.

We have a choice. Stay paralyzed or embrace possibilities like a ten-year-old. Reset when you need to, but then put your ambitions in order and get to work.

Simple truth: Trying to do too many things at once = Frustration and Overwhelm.

We start working on new ideas with excitement and wonder.
We may even have a few good days or even weeks of progress, running through items on our to-do list, but then…

Then the magnitude of difficulty of what we are trying to accomplish bears down on us, and we begin to no longer feel like we are running. We have slowed to a jog, or even just a walk.

Eventually our idea becomes just like that exercise machine in our basement gathering dust. Every time you walk buy it, you pretend it’s not there because seeing it is a reminder of what could have been, if only…

Some good ideas were destined to die, because you eventually discovered they weren’t that good in the first place (or at least that is what we tell ourselves so we can feel better about moving on).

However, many of our good ideas are still good, some may even be great, and they are still waiting for us to share them with the world.

The biggest mistake I see people make (myself included) with bringing good ideas to life, is focusing on too many things at once.

There are 36 things that need to happen, and we’re trying to solve 9 or more of those tasks at the same time.

This initially brings us excitement because progress appears to be happening quickly, but in reality, this often is the beginning of our idea’s death spiral, we just can’t see it yet.

The key to bringing your good idea to life is to identify the 36+ things that need to happen, prioritize them, and then begin knocking them out ONE-AT-A-TIME.

It’s extremely likely that we agree and know this to be true, but yet, we don’t follow this critical path to success, and then eventually we get frustrated and overwhelmed, and good ideas die or at least go into hibernation.

I have a history of starting 6 new ideas all at once. I would do this because I didn’t know which one would take off, and all of them had good potential. But in the end, I never gave any of them a full chance at success because my time and attention were divided so greatly.

I’ve finally reconditioned myself to spot this costly negative behavior sooner, and now pause and prioritize when I feel the urge to take on more projects.

Focus on one thing, get it done, THEN move on to the next one.
Easier said than done. It’s fun to work on multiple projects at once.

It’s why so many people start multiple remodel projects around their home at once, often never completing some of them. It’s also why we “attempt” multi-tasking.

It feels like the best course of action to be work on many things at once. It’s human. More is better right?

But we can’t do anything as well and as quickly, if our attention and focus are spread too thin.

So here’s to good ideas that we don’t let die, because we paused and prioritized.