What's the best next step?
When people ask me what I do as a coach, I often reply that my job is to be good at asking questions. Sometimes people confuse coaching and mentorship, the latter being when you give specific advice or offer up expertise on an issue, but coaching is more about using questions to help clients reach an answer themselves. I find this approach to be much more transformational as it allows my clients to not only make the progress they’re craving, but also to build a sense of trust in their own intuition.
There are a whole host of different questions and tools I draw on to help my clients find the answers they’re looking for, but there’s one that I come back to time and time again, and that’s this: what’s the best next step you can take?
You see, often we want to create a thorough plan before we take any action. We want to know what the whole route map will look like, we want to have every little detail figured out. But in trying to figure out the whole plan up front, we get trapped in the procrastination stage, or become so overwhelmed that we don’t feel able to begin.
And it’s also a waste of time, because we don’t need to have everything figured out before we get started - in fact, doing that can sometimes hold us back or cause us to miss opportunities. All we ever really need to know is what the best next step is - that way, we stay focused on taking action. And when we take action, we learn, which helps us to better plan the best next step that comes after the first one.
I know that this approach works because it’s the one I use in my own life. I didn’t have the plan all figured out when I started my business 18 months ago - instead I followed my curiosity and started with one thing: my podcast. Then as my podcast grew along with my love for the self development space, I added on more small steps: retraining as a coach, creating more Instagram content, launching my coaching packages, experimenting with new products and offerings.
This time 18 months ago I had no idea that my business would look the way it does right now, but if I’d have tried to figure out the whole plan up front, I’d have been doing myself a disservice in so many ways. I’d have missed opportunities and hemmed myself in, and I’d have never been able to build a business that feels so intuitive to me. The only way I’ve been able to make that happen is by asking myself “what’s the best next step you can take?” and listening to the answer.
So today, I want to encourage you to ask yourself the same question. Think about a goal you want to work towards or a dream that you have, and instead of letting yourself be overwhelmed by everything you need to do to get there, instead just focus on the best next step. I promise you that that step will lead to the next step, and before you know it, you’ll be looking back with pride at everything you’ve achieved.
