Why we get overwhelmed by the details of our course and can’t move forward
What it all comes down to are 3 things: simplify, focus on our natural gifts, and get help with the rest.
I still catch myself thinking that I have to be good at everything in my work and have my hands in all of it. Even if I know better.
Especially when I was early on in my business, or even now when I’m starting a new project, or if I’m trying to be financially conscious.
But the truth is, sometimes that mindset gets in our way because it's actually not as beneficial to do it all ourselves. I've definitely learned this lesson over and over again (the hard way).
Like when I thought I could plan my wedding all by myself! More on that in a bit…
What I've learned is that the key to “success” is to focus on what we do well and ensure that we have enough support so we’re not doing it all on our own (and there’s a reason I put “success” in quotes…you’ll see what I mean).
Paying attention to what comes naturally allows us to do our best work, whether it’s serving clients, leading a team, or planning things out. And not executing everything alone.
The key is to set ourselves up so we can continue to stay excited about the work we're doing and not get burned out. This helps us stay connected to the vision that we had when we started our business or professional journey (which can be easy to lose sight of).
So what it comes down to are 3 things: simplify, focus on our natural gifts, and get help with the rest.
What do each of these look like in terms of creating a course?
Let's take each piece, one at a time.
Simplify
So, the first piece is to keep it simple. We tend to quickly overcomplicate things when we are flooded by everything we're told we’re supposed to have for a “successful” course (which is why I put “success” in quotes — success is in the eye of the beholder but we’re actually more often told what success should mean). The learning platform, the email systems, automated setup, a CRM, the list goes on and on… and on!
Honestly, we could get all of those tools and set each one of them up. But if we're doing all the things (especially when starting out) it can start feeling really heavy, and the joy gets sucked right out of it. Because we're trying to learn how to use all of the tools and keep track of everything, it overcomplicates things quickly.
I’ve become a firm believer that everything we have in our outside, external world impacts our inner experience. So if the course we’re starting to build is complex from the get-go, it's not going to be an enjoyable journey. It's going to fill us with resistance.
So the key is to simplify…let’s think about the most important things we want to have for our course.
Often it comes down to wanting a great experience for ourselves and for our students. When we're just starting out, we really don't need that much to try out our first course.
Keeping it really REALLY simple is going to give space for all of the other more important parts of our course, like our students being engaged in what they’re learning, having a really easy experience with whatever technology we’re using, being able to communicate easily with our students, and helping them when they get stuck. Those are the most important aspects to me.
It's not about having all the tools and resources. Those come in handy but only once we know exactly what it is that we want. And then, we find the right tools to support us. A lot of people get the tools first and then try to figure out how to fit their course or themselves into the tools. Talk about a massive headache!
Focus On Our Natural Gifts
Okay, so the next piece is really important. It's actually one of the most important things I've learned as I've built my business and helped my clients with their course creations.
The sooner we acknowledge and really understand what our gifts are, we more quickly and easily see what does not come naturally to us or what does not excite us or energize us.
So what that looks like in terms of building a course…
Let’s reflect for a moment:
Am I someone who likes to put a project plan together?
Do I thoroughly enjoy thinking through every single step that goes into it?
Do I want to start it all from scratch and do it myself?
Or do I want to partner up with someone (or a team of people) who can help me do all or some of those pieces so I can focus on what comes most naturally to me?
Most people I've worked with are big-picture thinkers and they have a big vision in mind that they want to create for their course. But really, it’s more about where the course fits in with the whole vision they have for their business or professional future. And typically, this course is one part of the larger whole.
They want a new revenue stream to add flexibility to their lives, or they want to share their wisdom with people they want to help. These are just a couple of examples.
So what’s important is being able to hold onto that vision and not lose sight of it. Stoking it and thinking about the experience we want to have. How we want to show up.
Oftentimes, technology is not a strong suit for many of the great people I work with. So not having to worry about it is incredibly stress-relieving. They can focus on what comes naturally to them, which is what they're teaching in their course. It’s what they're passionate about. It's what they want to create and offer their community.
So, if there’s only one thing to take from this piece, I hope it’s this:
Let us honor who we are. We don’t need to change or be like someone else.
Can we focus on our natural gifts and what lights us up?
And then we can…
Get Help With The Rest
We don't have to carry it all on our shoulders. I'm giving you permission right now to go against the whole “pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” and I’m claiming that it's not good for us to work that way.
It's not healthy, it's not sustainable, and we're going to burn out if we do it all on our own.
One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves is to identify what we don't do well or aren't excited about in terms of the course-building process (or even just our work in general).
If we get help with the pieces that we’re not great at, we can stay energized for the long run. We can have the balance we need, we can take better care of ourselves and our loved ones, and we can have a life outside our work. And that is honestly what's going to make the biggest impact on our so-called “success.”
That is what’s going to translate into the experience we’re going to have when delivering our course, which is, in turn, going to impact how our students experience their interactions with us and how they learn from us.
We’re going to feel more spacious, we're going to feel relaxed, excited, and confident because we have the support systems in place.
It’s Like Finding the Right Wedding Planner
So a little example from my own life…
I got married in the summer of 2022, and I am definitely one of those people who has that voice in the back of her head that says, “You can do it all,” and “You can figure it out yourself. You don't need help. How hard could it be to plan an event? You help your clients create large course projects, and you've done big things before.” Plus, I've known other people who planned their own weddings (comparison gets me every time!)
And as time went on, every time I looked at the list of things I needed to do, I got more and more overwhelmed.
I’m very detail-oriented, and I honestly did not know what I was getting myself into. Over time it became this thing that I no longer was excited about. I cried to my (then) fiancé one night about wanting to elope.
And I think that's a perfectly normal part of the process, but it was in that moment I realized if I didn't get help, I was not going to have this wedding. My anxiety was increasing when I thought about all the things that could fall through the cracks, and all the things I didn't know to ask because I had never done this before. I am not an event planner! That is not my thing, and I had to own and honor that.
I had to talk to that voice in my head pretty honestly (the one that felt like it was a badge of honor to do it all myself) and say, “You know what? Yeah, you probably could do it all yourself, but if you want to enjoy this wedding and if you want to enjoy the journey of getting there, you’re going to need help.”
The wedding was still 5 or so months away at that point. So it's not like the stress was going to go down anytime soon if I was going to continue down the path I was on.
So, I finally asked for help. I told my mom and my fiancé that I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. It was this turning point that changed my entire experience (not that it was easy to admit).
We found an amazing wedding planner! She was such a pro and had done this hundreds of times. I started enjoying the planning again, and I could focus on the parts that really excited me (like the wedding website and playlist) instead of feeling weighed down by everything else that had to get done.
What's really cool is that when looking into wedding planners, they had a few options including a partial planning option. And that’s exactly what we chose because we were already so involved and wanted to be part of the plan. I had opinions about what I wanted and how I wanted to feel. I just didn't want to be in charge of everything and do it all by myself.
I wanted to partner with someone who had been there, who could instill confidence in me, who knew the questions to ask, and who could help me let go and enjoy this experience. It was such a joyful process and I was excited to get married again! I wasn't sure if I was going to feel that again, to be honest, but I'm really glad I got out of my own way and listened to my gut.
So What Now?
My point in sharing that story is to express how we’re not alone. Especially if we have that voice telling us to pull it together and tough it out…and we don’t want to listen to that voice anymore.
If we know clearly what our struggles are, we can then look for that person who's going to complement us. We don't need a clone of ourselves because we already have a very important set of perspectives, knowledge, abilities, and skills.
Even if we’ve never created a course before, we each bring so much to the table — more than we probably realize.
It may be helpful to reflect on some of these questions before finding support that feels like the right fit:
How do I want to feel when I am creating my course and delivering my course?
What are the things that drain my energy?
What are the things that hold me back from moving forward?
What are the pieces that bring up resistance? That have kept me from creating this course?
(For some of us, it’s been years of resistance.)
I imagine that we all want to feel energized and inspired. And I have no doubt that it’s possible. What we create is going to propel us forward. It’s like the next level of our evolution, so we can offer meaningful support to our communities and also lead us closer toward the life we dream for ourselves.
I hope this piece gives you whatever permission you need to set up the experience you want for your course creation.
And if this leaves you with questions about your next steps, feel free to jot them down in the comments below.
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Who wrote this blog post?
I'm Dori Iris, Founder of DIZI strategies, encouraging and supporting big-picture thinkers to bring their vision to life and contribute to a better world.
I welcome any of your thoughts or questions! Feel free to add them in the comments section below.
