Why You Shouldn't Handle More Than Three Projects.
Author: Mark Silver


As I write this, my wife Holly, myself, and our assistant
Kate are planning to meet in a couple of hours. And why? So
we can put a bunch of absolutely amazing and wonderful
ideas on the back burner, and do nothing about them.

It's probably not such a surprising idea for you, that
you're supposed to prioritize your projects, and only focus
on a few things at a time. If you're new to the concept,
like I was when I was trying to keep 20 projects all going
at once, and driving myself insane in the process, let me
'splain just briefly.

If you give in to the pressure that you need to get lots
and lots done all right now, it's much more likely you'll
end up spinning around, getting much less done, and getting
it done with a lot less quality. And you'll find your
business hasn't moved forward nearly as much as you'd have
liked.

If you just focus on three major projects in your business
at a time, and put the rest on the back burner, you'll
actually get them done, so you can move on to other things.
You'll think you're moving more slowly, but after a year or
two of focusing on only three projects at a time, adding a
new project when another completes, you'll see that your
business is making a lot of progress.

Focusing on three is the smart thing to do.

But, just because it's 'smart' doesn't mean that you or I
will have the will power to resist the flood of urgency
that wants us to keep adding to the pile.

Does your project have a soul? Everything, absolutely
everything comes from Source, and has a spiritual essence
to it. This most obviously applies to humans, animals, and
plants. But, it also applies to things, and even ideas.

Things like projects. I know it's strange to imagine it,
but projects really do have a spiritual essence.

Let me put it to you this way: if everything, everything
comes from Source, if it didn't have a spiritual essence,
how could that project exist?

Pick one of your business projects right now, and take a
few moments to see if you can connect to the spiritual
'essence' of the project. For instance, this homestudy
product we're working on, if I take a few moments in my
heart, I can become aware of a sense of its 'beingness.'
Kinda hard to put into words, but it's there.

I wouldn't exactly call it a 'soul,' but it is an
expression of Divine Reality, and so it's definitely akin
to that.

How many close, really close, friends do you have? You've
met a lot of people in your life, I'm guessing. At least in
the hundreds, probably in the thousands. Yet the number of
acquaintances you have, people you know better, is much
fewer.

And the number of real friends and loved ones, the ones you
see on a daily or weekly basis? I bet it's a pretty small
number.

Your projects are intimate friends of your business, but
are they intimate friends of yours? If you just barely give
them the time of day, glad-handing from one to another as
if in a large party, what kind of a relationship will you
really develop with your projects?

Will you discover the unexpected depths, the breadth of
opportunity? Will you really be able to attend to all the
details, issues, and questions that your project brings up?

If I handle a project only as series of tasks that I need
to get done, not only do I disconnect from my heart, but
the whole project feels a little dull, lifeless. I tend to
miss the miracles available.

For instance, I had a project of creating strategic
alliances. At first, I was just trying to list out
potential strategic alliances, and approach them. I did
have my heart open, but it still felt rather mechanical.

It wasn't until I really looked at the whole project of
"strategic alliances," and came into a deeper relationship
with the essence of it, and found a quality of beingness
that included openness, generosity, and sincerity, that the
project took on a life of its own.

Suddenly, instead of pushing boulders uphill, strategic
alliances starting sprouting up seemingly spontaneously.
Whew! How much better is that?

Keep Projects Intimate. If you try to keep too many friends
in your inner, inner circle, then you get to know none of
them well. The same with your projects. Your business
projects have tons of undiscovered miracles within them, if
you can only really open your heart, and get up close and
personal.

This is why I'm asking you to please, please limit the
number of active business projects to about three, and put
the rest of them on the back burner.

Is it really that simple? Well, kinda. Let's take a look.

Keys to Project Intimacy. • Pick just one project.

With that one project, take a moment in your heart to see
what's your true relationship to it. Not your ideal
relationship, but what's true now? Are you grumpy, scared,
nervous, tense, angry?

What if it was okay to feel that way about the project?

Example: Strategic alliances... ewww... scary. It's kinda
like cold calling, and do I really have to force myself
onto people? Emotions/sensations: fear, overwhelm,
resentment.

• What's the deeper relationship?

When you take time in your heart to connect with the
essence of the project, what quality of relationship is
there?

Example: Strategic alliances... resting into my heart...
remembering times when people were really happy to help
promote the business. Asking in my heart what is the Divine
quality of relationship? Qualities: sincerity, generosity,
love.

• How many can you honestly handle?

If you were going to have deeper relationships with your
active projects, how many can your heart honestly handle?

List out all of your projects, and pick the top three to
six. Go through this process with each of them, and then
just honestly sit with each. How many of them can you
really handle, without becoming overwhelmed?

Trust your heart here. If you can handle three, that's it.
Trust that the rest will wait patiently on a back burner
until it's time to get to them.

Sometimes you want to have as many friends as possible, but
there are just so many intimate dinners or tea-parties in a
week that you can get to. Limit your projects, and get
intimate with those that are active. There will be plenty
of time later to get to the others, and, in the meantime,
the intimacy you build with each project will really get
your business going.


About the Author:

Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around the
globe succeed in business without lousing their hearts. Get
three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofbusiness.com