{"id":7440,"date":"2020-02-28T11:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thewritelife.com\/?p=7440"},"modified":"2020-02-28T11:40:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T16:40:09","slug":"start-your-passion-project-right-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thewritelife.com\/start-your-passion-project-right-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Start Your Passion Project Right Now by Taking 5 Small Steps"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve had a passion project (or seven) rattling around inside your brain for months now. <\/span><\/p>\n

Maybe you love telling people about it, or maybe you\u2019re keeping mum \u2014 either way, you can\u2019t stop thinking about how amazing it will be when you finally start working on it.<\/span><\/p>\n

But for some reason, you just haven\u2019t taken the first step. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes we put off getting started on passion projects because we\u2019re waiting for just the right time, when we\u2019ll have the energy or the spare time to tackle it. You know: After the kids go to college, or after you meet that big deadline at work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why your passion project doesn’t have to wait<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, we end up ignoring all these fabulous little <\/span>fragments of time<\/span> we <\/span>do<\/span><\/i> have throughout our days, while we\u2019re waiting for the dentist or checking Facebook on our lunch breaks. <\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, it would be great to have generous amounts of uninterrupted time every afternoon to draft your novel or work on your magnum opus, <\/span>but if you put off getting started until \u201cthe right moment,\u201d you may never get started at all<\/b>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Here are five small steps you can take to light a fire under your passion project today.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Visualize why it matters \u2014 and then commit<\/strong><\/h3>\n

What\u2019s so special to you about this project? What makes it so important that you\u2019re willing to give up staying current on the latest TV series, or say no to happy hour? <\/span><\/p>\n

If you can identify why completing this project is so important to you, you can hold it like a beacon of light when darkness and frustration threaten to close in.<\/b><\/p>\n

Many of us have multiple dream projects and boundless optimism about how much we can actually accomplish. Maybe dreams of writing your grandmother\u2019s recipes into a cookbook are warring with visions of that screenplay you\u2019ve been dying to write. Maybe you\u2019ve thought of starting a blog<\/a>, but you also have a seven-book fantasy series plucking at your attention. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trying to work on all these projects at once will just result in none of them getting done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some day you might get to them all, but right now, you need to commit to the one that feels most important.<\/b><\/p>\n

Write down the name of your project and the reason it\u2019s so important to you, and put it where you\u2019ll see it regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Get organized<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The thing about passion projects is so often they’re very, <\/span>very<\/span><\/i> big. We’re not talking \u201cbake a cake,\u201d we’re talking \u201copen a bakery.\u201d We’re not talking \u201cwrite an email to grandma,\u201d we’re talking \u201cwrite a novel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the face of projects that will span multiple months \u2014 and maybe even years \u2014 it\u2019s easy to get caught standing like a deer in the headlights, frozen by just how much will be required to get it done.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s time to get organized. Create a new file or open a new notebook (I like to create a new <\/span>Evernote<\/span><\/a> folder). <\/span>Now, and over the next few weeks, it\u2019s time to brainstorm everything you know about your project:<\/b><\/p>\n