No vs. Not Now

I've had to take a lot of my own medicine over the last couple of months.

I've always had a bigger vision than Productive Flourishing, the website, as much as I'm proud of what we've built thus far. Here recently, a piece of my broader vision has taken hold something fierce.

It's woken me up out of a dead sleep because it was ready to be paid attention to. It's had me crunching numbers, working plans, and doing all sorts of mental gymnastics to see if I can make it work now. In fact, it just pulled me out of the shower.

In case you're curious, it's actually not the book. It's not some new product or offer, either. You'll just have to wait to see what it is.

The trouble, of course, is that it's more than I can do by myself and it exceeds the current capacity of my team. To make it work, we have a lot of build-up to do.

As much as I want to move on it right now, to do so right now would start us on the road to ruin simply because I'm over-reaching. It does no good to launch a rocket with enough fuel to get a third of the way to the moon - there's a lot of space and void in-between.

I took an intermediate step that allows us to focus on getting there. It's a launchpad for now and it's going to be fun to build up to launch.

Through my years of advising hyper-creative entrepreneurs and small business owners, I've had to tell them that there's a big difference between "No" and "Not Now." When we say "No," that inner 5-year-old throws a tantrum and starts sabotaging anything but the thing we've said No to.

I'll be very clear here: that inner 5-year-old can be one of the biggest sources of fuel for our dreams - oftentimes, it's the only part of us that still remains able to dream in the first place.

However, like any other 5-year-old, it can't understand time and conservation. It doesn't understand that the puppy it sees in the store comes with a lot of poop, feeding, and sleepless nights. It can't understand that forgetting to close the door can be bad for the puppy.

It can't understand that the best thing you can say sometimes is "Not Now."

"Not Now" doesn't mean you give up on your dreams. (Tweet this.) It doesn't mean that you walk away and forever doom yourself to living a half-life of shattered dreams. It does mean that you get to focus on having the best go of things when it's time. It gives you a reason to walk those extra steps in confidence and peace rather than frantically trying to hang onto something at the cost of everything else.

I say all this to remind you that, yes, I know how it feels. It's uncomfortable as hell. And the discomfort doesn't make the decision to say "Not Now" any less right. The positive discomfort is a sign that we're on the right track, not an admonition to do something right now. Hyper-creativity can stifle our businesses since it leads to dramatic overcommitment.

If it's really what you're meant to do, it's important that you do it well. Build your launchpads.