How to turn ideas into viable life paths [Tactical Walk-through]

How to get unstuck and find your direction. Have you ever felt stuck because you have too many vague options you could take? Maybe you've got multiple opportunities and you don't know which path to take. This is what keeps most people, at least the ones I come across, trapped in their current situation. Everything stays as a blurry thought cloud instead of a real, tangible and clear path. So today I'm going to show you how to force the function and create clear paths. This will help you get the clarity that you're probably looking for and get unstuck and get some motion. Now, this was all prompted because I've had a recent call with a client. We actually worked through this exercise. They were able to reach a lot more clarity here. Now, this is something I would do quite regularly with people and it's, it's way more effective than you realize. But sometimes it can feel quite forceful. So paralysis from vague options. People often stay stuck because their options are simply not fleshed out. They exist as these ideas swirling in your head, but they never take shape. So there's actually no structure to these options. They're just loose ideas. So without concrete endpoints, all these options, there's no con. You can't really have any conviction behind them because they're just all loose and fluffy. And the other problem is it can feel quite overwhelming and it's unrealistic because it falls into that nearly fantasy category because you've not fleshed out any of it. You end up always returning back to the situation you're currently in, which for the most part, especially if you're watching this video, so not for everyone, is the worst case scenario, which is staying exactly where you are. So just to give you a bit of a visual here, I want you to imagine you're a train station and you're on a train headed somewhere you don't want to go. Each month of indecision, your other options. So you could always go to another train track. I can't think of a platform. That's what I'm thinking of, the other tracks. But these other tracks, they will drift further and further away, making them harder to reach. Why? Well, because your train is not stationary. It's leaving the station, it's moving. Hold on to that thought, we'll come back to it. But in addition, you can also think about it like trying to plan a trip. You generally don't just board a random train or flight. You pick a destination first and then you map out the best route to get there. Your direction in life works the Same way, if you don't define a destination first, it's really easy to just drift aimlessly on the train you're currently on. Now, it doesn't mean you have to get. You will end up at that final destination, but you just have to have one in mind at the beginning to inform which platform you need to be on. So the core idea here is we need to force the function. We have to get you to make those assertive decisions. So the key to breaking free here is to stop thinking loosely about your options, right? We need to sit you down and actually get to fleshing these options out. Make them real by mapping them out very clearly. The act of fully articulating your paths is what actually helps you see what's viable and what's not. The reason this works so effectively is not some kind of magical process. It's because the process fills in lots of blind spots. It exposes clearly unrealistic options, right? Things that you thought you could do in parallel that have to be done in serial and could take multiple years. And you're thinking, well, that clearly can't happen. So this is actually what happens with a client working with recently. And it makes you realize which choices are tangible. And you can only do that when you try, when you actually assemble it. And on the flip side for the good ones, you start to realize that journey actually looks pretty cool. I'd actually stop off now. If you were doing a train journey, you pick a destination, you think, okay, so which are the train stations? Which trains do I need to take, and which connecting stops do I need to go to? And you realize, oh, wait, that connecting stop. I've always wanted to go to that city too. And you realize not only is the destination good, but the journey is also good. Same thing with flights. If you want to go to somewhere on the other side of the world, you may say, okay, I want to go there. What flights are available? So you go on Skyscraper or Expedia, and then you search up different flights and you figure out, is there a direct flight? Is there a what about stopover? I've always wanted to go to Dubai. Let me do that one and I'll stop there. Oh, the journey sounds pretty cool. Okay, so only when you make a decision and force it, do you get to the point where you can start mapping this out and you can start seeing the blind spots. Likewise, let's say with the flight or the train destination to another city in your country, it may take 52 hours to get there with all the connections, and you're Thinking, no way, I'm not doing that. I'm not going on a sleeper, I'm not doing that. I don't even like the journey, it sounds really boring and I'm just not going to enjoy it. In which case that has also given you data. So I recently worked with a client completely stuck in this situation. But this actually happens really regularly and I have to do this exercise quite a few times and it always makes me want to create a video on it because it's quite difficult to engage with because it is quite forceful in its nature to start with, but it's so effective by the end of it. And it just reminded me because like I said, it happened very recently and always makes you think, oh, this is such a useful exercise to do. So I thought I'd share it. Recently worked with a client, completely stuck, had multiple ideas about which direction they wanted to go in, but felt really overwhelmed. So what we did is we mapped out each option in full detail, defining clear endpoints, what income they would like. Sorry, what the income would look like, what the lifestyle would be in that specific scenario, how they would feel in that scenario, what the journey would look like, how long it would take, you know, flesh out everything there. Once they saw everything on paper, they immediately recognized their current situation, Right? So we would create say three to five options. And you know, one of them is, it's like an ideal situation. One of them is a slight tweak, One of them is the same situation and they realized the current situation is the worst case scenario by a long way they just hadn't acted on it. And if you don't do these exercises, you realize that you, you can keep your mind just below the activation energy to do anything about it. And you stay in that denial phase and you think, oh, you know, things are just plodding along only when you do this. And you makes you realize now, obviously this only applies to people who actually don't like the current situation. I know plenty of people who really like their current situation that the train that they're on right now, they couldn't be happier. It's the best train, you know, it's the best train leaving the train station, great. But this is really for those who recognize that the train they're on, they don't like. The tr. The destination they're going to on this train, they also don't like. And this, doing this makes you realize that is all true. Nearly any other platform, any other destination in any other train would be better, at least from the perspective of where you are right now. In which case it's worth exploring these. You may change your mind after you examine this. By the way, suddenly attempting to try freelancing stood out as a clear and viable path. And this gave them the momentum and clarity that they, that they didn't have before. Yeah. And so that's something that they are able to then work through and flesh out. Now you could always, you want to continuously check the viability, whether it is possible, whether you still want to do it and you can still always stay on the same train if you want to. But historically when I've worked with clients, it has been a no brainer that the one that they're on, they have gone way out of the station already. They already do a big walk back to get on another train. They are certain this one, they do not want to be on it any longer. If you are that person, you may it is worth doing an exercise like this so it can help you realize this step by step process. Okay, so I'll just help you through this just to give you a starting point how to map your paths so you actually want to create multiple paths. And every time you have a new idea, rather than try and judge it and decide is it possible, is it not? Don't worry about that. You just map out the destination. We'll figure out what train and what connection flights you need to take later. So define your ideal funding destination. What does a successful outcome look like for you? Be specific. So I always like to use if people are looking to change their careers or start in business, we'll actually pick certain income, monthly income, yearly income, what kind of lifestyle it is, what work environment, daily experience. We can check things for the, the practicality of it. Is it actually likely all of that stuff later, just come up with the ideas first and we can order them. Then map the journey backwards. This is then like the trip planning phase. Then you can go backwards and figure out okay, what trains do I need to take? What airplanes? I'll jump on skyscanner and figure out what, what planes I can get there, can I afford it? So here same thing, identify the key connections. What might you need to learn and train for to get there? How many clients do you need to learn to build up the experience or the portfolio? You need to get a stable set of clients. That's an example. What, what skill upgrades do you need to go to the next level in your career? So identify those key connections or milestones there that would make that any specific path or work. Now you don't have to go super detailed. To be honest, most people have not done any work on this. So actually just doing a basic one can, can be really helpful. Set a minimum success criteria. Define the minimum that would make each path a success. This prevents endless overthinking yet so this is another problem. Some people get caught in this cycle. There's a, there's a, there's a middle ground we need to find here. But if you can start this process, it can be incredibly helpful. It won't help everyone. Like everything, certain sets of instructions don't work for everyone. But if this is resonating with you, I definitely recommend it in this sec. In this case we will often check for whether a path is viable. So maybe not the end point, but what kind of income would you like to see that would prove you could go to the next phase? So for example, some people might say, you know, they may have an income of 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 monthly. Well maybe after three months or six months, if you can generate a hundred dollars or $500 or thousand dollars, that would make it viable to suggest that you can actually make some money and that's actually viable to go to the next stage. At the same time, if you can start making a baseline income for an option that is a minimum success criteria for you. And of course you can have an upper limit here where it could be sky's the limit, it could be unlimited and that, that has been the case. And I had a client a long time ago where they were looking to get onto social media and create content and they did not have any idea about the size of brand deal that was possible and that we end to be honest, this happened in the kind of 20, 21 even I, I wasn't even prepared for how big the brand deal sizes were going to be when, when he told me when he got offered them. So sometimes we don't even know, but we can start planning these things out and seeing what it could look like. Okay, anyway, next one recognize that staying stuck is the worst case scenario. So if you're in a bad situation, if you're already on a train, you do not like the train and you do not like the idea of the destination you're going to. And if you've been on this train for a while, you probably know what that destination is already. It's the one you have the most data about. It's probably the one that you least want to be on. So remember, if you don't make a decision, you have selected that option. This is not like you're in a neutral scenario and you could choose this option. You are on that train. This is your default. Remember that? Yeah. Now, at this point, a good way to do it, which I've not actually put here, is to order them. You will usually have an intuitive response as to which one feels good and which one feels bad. Now, most of the time, option five, which is your current situation, is usually right at the bottom and you'll usually have a preferred one at the top. And usually option one and two are fairly close and sometimes one sticks out completely. Now what I would recommend at this point, some people, it's obvious that they need to go for that. In which case I would really suggest looking for how can we make some progress on that option in some way over the next week or month. Now, if I'm working intensely closely with someone, we'd actually flesh that out and create a battle plan of how we're going to do that. I would say go to about 70% certainty and then start taking action. You will discover the rest of that which will give you more certainty. Once from taking that action, it will come from the experience itself. If you're not ready for that, which is perfectly okay. And I've seen that many times with many clients. Flesh those options out, make it visual, draw those charts. So I always get people to do this where we actually draw timelines out and look at them every day and add to it and take away, cross things out, add post it notes. You will start to live and breathe these options. What will it do? It will engage your brain to make you see these are serious, serious things happening in your life. It will also make you realize you're currently on a train right now. And the longer you stay on this train, no not making decision. You will continue down this option 5 and you will end up in the last place you want to be. And you could have jumped on any other train. It will also help you flesh out other questions you need to ask. What does the other train feel like? What's the food like on the other train? Yep. It will make you ask these questions. So doing all of this process will push you so much further forward, even if you don't have precise action or sorry, a way to be committed to one of those paths just yet, you can sit on it, ask those further questions. There's more data to collect even before that point. And then at that point you really want to start taking some action. But anyway, the purpose of this video is to at least flesh this out. It was fresh on my mind. So hopefully that is useful. So some key takeaways. If you never clearly define your options, you will probably drift indefinitely. The clarity you're waiting for won't come from more thinking. Right? Just loosely thinking. Map this out, force the function, map out these real paths. You will face some real truths as well. Some people will look at getting qualified in some way and they realize that the qualification will take too long, it would be too many years and they won't have any income for that period. So that option was a fantasy and actually they can't make it work easily. Once you do this, the best options will naturally stand out. Yeah, most people I've worked with, this has become kind of quite clear. Taking action becomes easier. So a little step for you to take. Take 30 minutes today. Right. Even after watching this video, write out some top three paths in full detail. Get them out of your head onto paper. You may well come up with five options. I have a client where we start with three, then they expand to five. And then some of the paths they have sub paths because then it's nearly one of the paths. Say it's option four and then there's like a split. It's. You go down one route and it could split into two ways after six months. Don't worry. Write them as option 4A and 4B. Okay. Now, yeah, if you do want a deeper framework, I do go through this in a course I've just released. But to be honest, this should be enough to get you started. If you do want to walk through on all of these templates, check the link in the description below. But otherwise, let me know what options you're facing, what different trains you could jump on, and let me know in the comments. Okay. Remember, clarity doesn't come from waiting. Right? You will just stay on this train, going to the place you do not want to be. That's the one thing a lot of people often say, I do not want to be at that place. It really comes from action. Okay, I'll see you in the next video.