I really love working with people who want to do great things with their lives — it’s what my Bootcamps are all based around, it’s what my books are focused on, and it’s where I make the greatest impact. One common characteristic of people like this is the ability to dream big. And that’s absolutely crucial — after all, if you don’t start out by dreaming big, you’re never going to move beyond mediocrity!

But what I also see is that sometimes having a huge dream can also be overwhelming. After all, when you’re dreaming of doing something that’s so big, how do you even know where to start? In the worst case, people give in to the overwhelm and pass up some truly life changing dreams. But it doesn’t have to happen that way. Whenever you’ve got a huge project in mind and you’re getting overwhelmed…

1. Get very clear on what you’re actually trying to accomplish.

It’s not enough to say that you want to grow your business or write a book — you need to get much more specific, otherwise you won’t be able to plan out the steps to get there (or even know when you’ve accomplished your goal!)

So start out by figuring out the specifics of your big goal — just doing this can often kill a lot of overwhelm because you have a clear end point in mind. If you’re getting stuck, ask yourself the most powerful question: “What is the ONE thing that will make the BIGGEST impact on reaching my goal right NOW?” (More on that here).

2. OK, you know where you’re going. Now you just need to make the roadmap to get you there.

But don’t make the mistake of trying to plan from the present forward — instead, use reverse engineering to work backwards. This is much better than planning forwards because it keeps you from getting stuck when you can’t figure out the next step (and then putting off finishing) and because it also gives you a clear first step that you KNOW is going to take you towards your end goal.

3. Figure out what’s going to distract you and proactively eliminate it.

Think back on other projects where you’ve had problems and what distracted you then. Was it having too many projects on the go at the same time, taking on things for others when you really needed the time for yourself, spending too much time on Facebook, what? Then think of ways that you can proactively eliminate (or at least limit) this distraction so that you don’t get thrown off track.

4. Get some accountability.

What do you think your probability of achieving a goal is if you have an idea, decide you’ll do it, and get a good plan in place? You would think that it would be pretty good, but actually, it’s just 50%.

But if you’ve got an accountability partner, then the probability increases to 95% — virtually guaranteed! So once you’ve decided on what your project is and got your plan in place, announce it — if not to the world, then at least to a few close friends so you can give yourself the best chance to succeed.

5. Schedule regular check-ins, and do them properly.

This may seem like common sense, but actually, most people don’t really do check-ins properly. Either they put them off because they’re too busy (or scared of what they’ll find), or when they do them, they don’t really get down into the heart of the matter.

So schedule regular check-ins in advance during which you ask yourself whether you’re still doing the ONE thing that will make the BIGGEST impact on reaching your goal right NOW. If you are, then great, keep going! If not, then don’t just feel bad about it and give up — figure out what’s going on. Why aren’t you making the progress you planned for? And how can you get things back on track?

Next steps:

What’s your big dream? Is it to treble your business in the course of the year, finally write your book, move house, move countries…what? And what are you going to do TODAY to make it happen?