As many of you know, I launched my membership program, The Green Paint Society, last week on August 1st. I was overcome with gratitude for everyone who signed up. And I felt pretty proud of myself for making this goal happen.

Launching a membership program had been a goal of mine for over a year, yet I couldn’t seem to get it done. For any of you trying to launch your next big endeavor, you know the feeling.

I’ve always maintained that artists are bad at focus. It’s the downside to our hyper-creative brains. Even type A artists like myself struggle with focus. I’m a dreamer, and I always have loads of ideas in the hopper. And I want to accomplish them all at once. For some reason, artists seem to crave instant gratification. After years of setting goals and struggling, I’ve finally figured out my problem.

I’m always focused on more than one goal at once.

While working on my Green Paint Society launch, I was also working on my first online course and a personal children’s book project. All three projects were moving along, but very slowly. I felt like I was working really hard, probably from all the time I spent thinking about the projects versus actually doing the work. Managing three projects at once takes a lot of brain power.

Then, in June, I had the epiphany that I probably had to pick one if I ever wanted to get anywhere. So I did. I picked The Green Paint Society and announced to my readers that I would be launching on August 1st. This lit a fire in me because accountability is key. I dropped the other two projects for the time being, which killed me by the way. However, it was the only way I was able to accomplish any of my goals. I also cut back on how much art I was making to clear my schedule.

The crazy thing is that once I shifted my focus to one project, getting it over the finish line actually felt easy. I got this project done with loads of time to spare.

And now I just feel proud of myself. It’s a great feeling. I have momentum to tackle the next big project, which is either going to be my course or my children’s book. I’m thinking my course because it’s closer to being done. Accomplishing just one project gave me the confidence to tackle the next. And I’m going to force myself to stick to this “one goal at a time” rule in the future.

I thought by sharing this story with you, I might inspire you to focus on just one of your big goals. Give it everything you have and finally get it done. Set a deadline, and find a way to hold yourself accountable. If you’re wired like me, this will feel impossible. You may literally need to put all your other projects in a box, lock it, and give the key to a friend. Trust me, it will be worth it.

I think of the analogy of trying to blow up three balloons at once, a nearly impossible task. We can try until we’re blue in the face, but we probably won’t get anywhere. However, if we tackle just one balloon at a time and pause in between balloons to catch our breath, suddenly this feels easy.

This pause between goals is important. This is something I’ve also struggled with in the past. We should never downplay our accomplishments by moving directly on to the next thing. We need to take stock of our achievements and celebrate our hard work. That’s the phase I’m in right now. It’s important to reward ourselves when we accomplish something big too. The bigger the project, the bigger the reward. I’ve decided I’m going to buy myself a nice green accessory to celebrate launching the GPS. I’m still shopping around, but I’m thinking some type of jewelry.

Whether you want to open a print shop, start a blog, redo your website, or launch a newsletter, I believe in you. Just remember, one goal at a time.