Doing something BIG - then you need a plan
Have you got something BIG you want to do?
If you do, that’s so cool! You’re my kinda people.
And if you really want to do it, and not just leave it meandering around in your head, then I reckon creating a plan is a great first step. It doesn’t have to be complicated, we’re talking six simple steps to get you from woah to go to done.
It doesn’t matter what your big thing is – it could be starting a business, changing careers, going on a big adventure, writing a book, running an ultra. The principles are the same. And this is based on what I’ve done back in corporate managing projects and programs and applied to my own BIG things.
In a nutshell, a plan is about setting a destination, working out how we’re going to get there, what we need and how long it’s going to take.
When we’re doing something really big, it’s a giant leap into the unknown. And we can be, like a deer in the headlights. It feels big. Too big to squeeze into our busy lives. Perhaps unachievable, and we find it too overwhelming to even take the first step. A plan doesn’t just set us up for success, it gets us moving.
If not knowing how is one thing that’s stopping you from working toward your big thing, this will help.
At the other end of the scale are those who start without working out the route. It would be like me deciding to drive to Darwin and getting in the car and starting to drive. With no route plan or GPS - I’d rely on my homing skills and be guaranteed not to take the shortest route. I wouldn’t know how far, how long it would take, where I’d get petrol, where I’d sleep and most importantly, how many snacks I’d need. You get my drift.
As Benjamin Franklin said, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.”
So – that’s my sales pitch. Let’s dig into it.
Step 1 – What’s the goal? The destination.
Where are you going? If it’s to run an ultra - which one? Where is it, how far is it, what time of year is it? It’s the difference between writing a book, to deciding it’s non-fiction, to landing on it being a memoir, to establishing it’s a memoir about an expedition down the Nile.
We keep zooming in.
Where are you going? Be specific. Unless it’s something like an ultra where you know the date - I wouldn’t set a date just yet.
Step 2 – What does success look like?
I’ll use my current big thing as an example. Pole to Pole – success is:
1. Getting there in one piece
2. Creating a Dream Movement of 1,000,000 people sharing and going after their dreams
3. Raising over A$1m for charities on the frontline combating modern slavery and supporting those impacted.
Those success factors are measurable – I’ll know when I’ve achieved them.
If you were running a marathon – is it in a certain time, raising a certain amount for charity. If it’s a start-up or business – what’s the recurring revenue, or number of clients, or five-star ratings?
We need this, because, one – we know when we get there, and two, it massively impacts the plan. Running a marathon in any time vs running a sub 4:00 when you’ve never run more than 5km will have very different plans and timeframes.
For me – the dream movement and the fundraising hugely increase the scope.
Step 3 – Big rocks and stepping stones
In project management land, we call this a work breakdown structure – fancy term for breaking a goal down into the major components and big things within them you need to achieve. We’re not getting into individual tasks yet.
Starting a business:
Business setup & governance
Product/service
MVP / testing
Customers
Website & brand
Marketing/sales
Finance
Pole to Pole
Route & logistics
Equipment
Training
Funding & sponsorship
Website & communications
Fundraising
Safety & risk
Permits/visas
AI is potentially your friend here. Don’t rely on it, but do use it. I’ve got a selection of prompts to use for this, which is shared in the Dream Movement (all free to access) - you just have to share your big thing on www.goingpoletopole.com.
Step 4 – Tasks
Ok, now you can create the tasks. The rule for these is that no one task should be overwhelming. My rule of thumb is it shouldn’t take more than half a day to complete. Sometimes I don’t know all the tasks – so I just have the big rock or milestone and will come back to it.
When you’re starting something you’ve never done before, there’s a lot of exploration to be done. We don’t need a complete plan to begin. We need enough to give us a good idea of what it’s going to take.
My recommendation is to establish how many hours each task will take one person. This is particularly relevant if you’re doing this on top of other responsibilities, work, looking after your kids, or others you care for, etc. You can then chunk things around those responsibilities.
This will potentially need tweaking, particularly if you get help. For example, the time it would take me to build the website for Pole to Pole is ages. For a professional, it will be a lot less and also mean I’m free to do something else.
For now, we are also not creating a schedule of when we’re doing things – easy tiger.
One of the advantages of small tasks, beyond taking the overwhelm out (which can make a task off-putting), and allowing us to tetris them around our current schedule and responsibilities, is that we get to tick things off more often. Who doesn’t love that?!
Again, AI is your buddy here to help you and there are prompts in the Dream Movement.
Step 5 – Resources
Looking at the tasks – what do you need? That might be money, expertise, equipment, tools, apps.
Now, there’s going to be some refining here. For larger projects, you might need to pull together a budget. I’ve done one for Pole to Pole - initially it was ballpark and now it’s more detailed. With that, I’ve also worked out the expertise that I need - a website developer (who did an amazing job), the weather routers, security advisers and more.
Then there’s all the equipment I need. This is still being refined.
We might start with the ideal list of resources, and then we find a way to move forward with the resources we have. Just don’t let the lack of resources stop you from starting.
Step 6 – Schedule
Now we start working out when we’re doing each task and, if there’s more than one person, who is doing it.
These last three steps kinda go in a loop. We need the tasks to work out the resources. We need the resources to work out the schedule. But when we put it in the schedule, we might adjust the resources. It’s a bit Mission Impossible shifting things around.
This won’t be done in one sitting.
So my top tip – have at least your next three actions to take while you build the plan. It might be doing some research, finding the right coach to build your ultramarathon plan. Whatever it is. Keep taking steps – build that momentum.
I do this in spreadsheets because I love spreadsheets (the Dream Movement has the template I use). But there are lots of apps out there like Asana, Trello, Monday.com, Notion, Miro, Clickup.
Whatever you choose, make it easy for you.
So there we go. Six steps to building a cunning plan to make your BIG thing a reality.
I love this. I get that not everyone else does. But I really encourage you to invest a bit of time in it. And AI can do so much of the heavy lifting for you. Wish it had been around when I was delivering projects back in my corporate days!
If you’d like to join a community of people going after their big thing head over to the Dream Movement with tools, tips and regular sessions to join.
Go you – and remember – think big, act bold, do more!
Sarah x
