Change careers, buy an apartment to renovate, leave a stable, prosperous relationship, go off on an adventure for a few days or several months.

It sounds crazy.

It’s hard to find your path, that “something” that makes you tick, especially in an environment that has been changing so fast for so many years.

Your state of mind can propel you towards the realization of your projects, or feed your fears and push you towards abandonment.

In twenty years, I’ve changed my life significantly, three times.
​I’ve had many successes, but also many failures.

In each situation, I had two choices:

• stay put and wait for things to change
• leave, make my own luck and work towards the realization of my projects.

I’m sharing with you the advice I would have liked to have heard, before embarking on what will be…

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Don’t ask permission

You have a project. That’s the first step!

Now you have to bring it to life, and you’re the only one who can do that.

This first step belongs to you, and no one else will take it for you.

You’re enthusiastic about this new adventure, but you’re probably asking yourself a ton of questions, and your mind is imagining the worst.
In a way, you’re doubting your own abilities.

You start looking for outside advice and recommendations from those close to you. You consciously or unconsciously seek their validation.

There are many reasons why we seek approval. Here are just a few:

• it reinforces our sense of belonging to a group and our self-esteem
• we seek to reduce our uncertainty by asking for confirmation, and thus obtain positive, motivating feedback
• social norms influence our lives, and can weigh heavily on our decisions
• we fear rejection and conflict

As far as possible, choose people who share your state of mind to avoid disappointment, or even a decision to stop your ambition dead in its tracks…
It’s your life, and you can give yourself the right to make a decision on your own.

There are only advantages to doing this: your confidence will increase, you’ll be more sure of yourself and you’ll go further in taking action.

This is how entrepreneurs work: decisions are made and put into practice. Once the results have been obtained, the decision is validated, refined or abandoned.
In IT projects, under the methodology known as Agile, we speak of iteration: create, test, deliver, collect feedback and start again.

The people who drive you are your Boosters

Every personal and professional project brings with it its share of uncertainties, loss of control and discomfort, particularly if we have had unhappy experiences in the past.

The best way to deal with this is to surround yourself with resource people. They’ll have lived through your situation, and can give you some pointers to follow.

Here are a few ideas for resource people, depending on your project:

• professional retraining: training organization or school, person contacted via LinkedIn who works in the profession in question, school alumni…
• renovation work or property purchase: real estate Facebook group, craftsmen, DIY store, video tutorial…
• travel around the world: blog, conference, screening, festival, equipment store, travel or hiking Facebook group…
• love separation: friends, health professionals, books, podcasts

Imagine you’re building a jigsaw puzzle. The resource people are the ones who will help you see things more clearly, answer your questions and guide you through the process.
We all need a sponsor, someone who influences us through their successes and experiences.

Don’t be afraid of failure

You’ve embarked on your project, you’re living new experiences to the full, but sometimes some are more pleasant than others…
A project is a succession of stages (and sub-stages) that follow on from one another.

Failure is part of the project.

We don’t like to fail :

• for fear of being judged (there’s that social pressure again)
• because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves to succeed
• for the uncertainty it engenders
• and because we don’t like to be disappointed, frustrated or sad.

Failing is perfectly NORMAL and even formative. By anticipating your next steps, you can avoid certain foreseeable inconveniences.
By steering your actions in this way, your state of mind will remain positive, and that makes all the difference.

Get organized and stay on course:

• try to understand the reasons for your failure
• what solutions you could have adopted
• plan your next steps to prevent failure from happening again.

Use Visualization to turn your project into a success

Success doesn’t just happen, it’s often the result of hard work, perseverance and determination.

Successful people visualize their success: Jim Carrey, Oprah Winfrey, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Serena Williams, Conor McGregor… put it into practice.

They all attribute part of their success to Visualization.

You can prepare yourself by imagining your success: the place, the people around you, the events you take part in, the tasks that organize your day.
​Project the sensations it gives you: you feel good, accomplished, fulfilled, happy, proud…

By practicing Visualization you will :

• clarify your goals by understanding the steps involved
• boost your confidence, motivation and perseverance
• condition your mind to accept this new reality
• sharpen your focus by prioritizing tasks
  draw inspiration from the success of others and apply a new strategy.

If it’s difficult for you to concentrate for a few minutes, you can write down a few sentences or build a picture board to remind you of your goal (the Why).

This is the home page of my spreadsheet Notion.so, representing the universe that inspires me and refocuses me towards my ideal:

Visualization is your ally, and you can put it into practice easily and immediately.
It’s obviously one step closer to your success and the success of your project.

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I’ve just shared some of my most valuable learnings with you. Over the past twenty years, I’ve undertaken many projects on my own. I’ve abandoned many projects and learned from my failures.

Why is it so difficult to take on a new project?

When you embark on a new project, whatever it may be, it upsets your habits and those of others.

We seek the approval of those around us to validate our idea, with the aim of being accompanied and supported.

Those around us won’t always be ready to understand our choice, but fortunately we’re not alone.

We can count on resource people and sponsors who have gone through or are going through the same transformation as us.

Visualizing success and anticipating pitfalls are invaluable allies in realizing our dream.

We’ll keep in mind that it’s hard to move forward without mistakes, and that we always have the power over our decisions.

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