The Top 10 Tips For New Consultants And Freelancers

You’ve just decided to leave your job. Or maybe you’re moonlighting. Either way you’re out there, offering your services to the highest bidder. Congrats!

The world of consulting and freelancing is a vast, mercurial place filled with all sorts of opportunities. But there’s danger lurking about as well. When you first jump into the game, eager for that first contract, you can find yourself in trouble with difficult clients, overblown projects, time constraints and more.

Here are 10 tips to help new consultants and freelancers get a headstart:

1. Set Expectations As Clearly As Possible. This is harder than it sounds. Clients are notoriously bad listeners. They want the moon, but they want to pay in loose change. Or they don’t quite know what they want but they want a super-accurate quote. Your job as a consultant or freelancer is to explain what you’re going to do and for how much and in what time frame as clearly as you possibly can. Write it down. Tell them. Repeat yourself. Write some more. Get them to sign proposals and specifications.
2. Get Money Upfront. Always ask for a percentage of the contract upfront - to be paid before you start. A decent amount is 25% or 33%, but even 10% of the contract in your bank account before you do a lick of work is better than nothing. You’ll have to ask for it to get it, very few clients will hand it over.
3. Make Sure Payment Terms Are Agreed On. There are two key elements when it comes to payment terms — (1) When you can invoice, and (2) When they’ll pay. Setup a payment schedule and make sure you know their payment terms. Oftentimes it’ll be Net 15 or Net 30 - which means they’ll pay an invoice in 15 or 30 days, but some companies have 45 or 60 day terms (which are not good for you!)
4. Get Expenses Paid For. Try and get the client to cover your expenses. The most common would be travel costs. There may also be specialized equipment needed to do a job, or other things you need to purchase. A web designer might need to purchase some stock photography, for example. If you can’t get this stuff paid for, consider increasing your contract price to cover any expenses you foresee.
5. Be Ready To Stop Work If You Don’t Get Paid. This is tough because it’s the start of a souring relationship, but you’re not a volunteer. You might consider having something in the contract/agreement that clearly stipulates work stoppages upon non-payment. Or, you leave it open-ended, at your discretion; but be mentally prepared and tough enough to tell the client, “No money, no work.”
6. Get a Testimonial or Reference During the Project. You don’t have to wait for the end of the project to ask for a testimonial or reference. Hit ‘em up in the middle, assuming things are going well and you’re getting positive reviews from the client. How do you get a testimonial? You ask. Sounds silly, but it’s true.
7. Track Your Time. Even if the client isn’t expecting timesheets from you, track your time anyway. Do it for your own understanding of how long things take. Do it so you’ll get more accurate at pricing projects (cause you’ll probably be lousy at it for awhile.) Do it in case a client demands justification for work you’ve done.
8. Don’t Ignore Client Communication. Managing and communicating actively with clients is critical to success as a consultant or freelancer. It’s not enough to do the work. They’ll want updates, status reports, etc. The more handholding you can do — without it consuming too much time and taking away from getting your work done — the better. A well-updated client is generally a happier one, even if you’re bringing them bad news, because they’ll feel on top of the situation and more in control.
9. Network Within the Organization. It’s always a good idea to inculcate yourself as deeply into your client’s organization as possible. If you’re hired by a District Manager, try and get introduced to her boss or other District Managers. The more connections you have the better. For starters it can lead to more work. It can also help in situations where your primary contact disappears - maybe they quit, get transferred / promoted, etc. Lots of opportunity is lost by consultants and freelancers when they’ve only got one contact in an organization and that contact is no longer in a position to hire them.
10. Document Everything. The more you track - in writing - the better protected you are in almost every imaginable circumstance. Miscommunications can be minimized and disasters can be contained by documented proof of what’s going on. As well, documentation is a valuable asset for setting clear expectations, defining goals and understanding project scope. Just write it all down.

Being a consultant or freelancer can be one of the most rewarding professional experiences. You’re an entrepreneur, growing a business. Opportunity abounds. You finally get to take your expertise and leverage it the way you want.

But it’s a learning process. Sometimes it can be a fairly steep learning curve, and you have to be prepared for that.

7 Ways To Avoid Pointless Meetings

Generally, meetings suck. We all accept that as truth but we have them anyway. Endless, endless meetings…

I think we’re addicted.

Given our love for meetings, we need to make them more effective. Having recently “enjoyed” several truly pointless meetings, I know there’s a better way.

The easiest answer is: “don’t have them at all.” That might work, but generally that’s impossible. So…

1. Make sure the meeting has a clear purpose. If I could scream this, I would: “What is the purpose of this meeting?” If you can’t define the purpose clearly, or you’re obfuscating it in order to get me into the meeting then shame on you.
2. Avoid suspense. There’s no place in meetings for suspense. Whether you’re delivering bad news or good news - just get to the point. You can explain all the circumstances of your news after the fact, but don’t keep people sitting around waiting.
3. Document what’s going on. The best thing about a meeting is not remembering what was talked about 5 minutes after it was finished. I suppose to avoid pointless meetings I could say, “be remarkable and memorable” but barring that, pick one person as secretary and have them distribute their notes later on.
4. Avoid distractions. Every meeting has at least one guy that’s distracted by something. He’s looking at his computer screen, staring out the window, signaling to people walking by the conference room, or picking his nose. Boot his butt out of there, he’s Mr. Pointless Meeting.
5. Have an agenda. This won’t work for impromptu meetings, but an agenda is a very good way to keep people on track. Distribute it beforehand. Don’t ask for everyone’s approval. If you do, and don’t get it, you’ll have a harder time following the agenda. Agendas are an opt-out effort; if someone doesn’t put in suggestions or request changes (or respond in any way) they’ve - by default - accepted the agenda.
6. Avoid regular meetings if there’s no agenda. Following point #4, if you’re having a regular, weekly meeting but there’s no agenda, why have the meeting? If you say “habit” then poke yourself in the eye. Meetings aren’t meant to satisfy your need for organization and habitual, mindless behaviors; they’re there to solve problems.
7. Schedule something critical right after. If you have the sense that a meeting may be pointless schedule something important right after. Tell the attendees as soon as you get in there, so you’ve got an escape route setup. You could always fake it, or even have someone call you during the meeting to get out, but it’s much more effective if you legitimately have to move on. It’ll help you keep others focused, moving through the agenda and accomplishing something.

Meetings don’t have to suck.

Many of them do, and our corporate culture seems bent on enforcing as many hours of meetings as possible. But there are better ways.

7 Little Tricks To Speak In Public With No Fear

Over the years, I finally overcome my fear of public speaking. I can now speak at any function unprepared and even though the nervousness is still there, I am able to control it. It was not easy but I made it with some help from books and a few techniques I develop myself.

Hopefully these tricks will be able to help you as they had helped me in overcoming fear of public speaking.

1) Admit nervousness

All you have to do is admit that you are a bit nervous speaking to your audience. When you do this, the audience will be more forgiving if your nervousness shows up later on. More importantly you will feel more relaxed now that they are not expecting a world-class presentation. Imagine their surprise when you gave them the best presentation ever despite your nervousness.

The best way to do this is by joking about it. Here’s an example of a good one. “On the way here, only God and I knew what I will be presenting. (looking a bit nervous) Now, only God knows.”

2) Redefine your audience

Redefine your audience generally means changing how you see your audience. Instead of seeing them as lecturers who are evaluating you, maybe you can convince yourself that they are all fellow students who are in queue to present after you. They are all equally nervous so there is no reason why you should be too.

Or perceive them as long lost friends that you haven’t seen for 10 years. This way you can maintain eye contact trying to figure out where you have seen him before. To the audiences, they will see a very friendly and personal presentation.

Do not try to convince yourself that they are babies in diapers or that nobody is around as suggested by some books. It is very hard to convince yourself that no one is around when you are actually speaking to them.

3) Invest in visual aids

Imagine a presentation with beautiful PowerPoint slides and even more impressive notes given to each of your audience members. Half of the time, their eyes will not be on you. They will read through the notes and your fancy slides. This will help a lot as you can then speak to the people who are not looking at you. When they look at you, you just change your focus to other people who are not looking. Giving a speech to people who are not looking at you is always easier.

4) Make mistakes intentionally

This is another trick I encourage you to try. The idea is to gain control of your audience. If you can make them laugh and be more interactive with you, your presentation will have that casual feel to it which will make it more memorable than others. Ultimately you will find it easier to do.

5) Speak to one person at a time

One of the most terrifying things about public speaking is the crowd. Just by looking at the crowd, all in silence just to hear you speak, will send shivers down your spine. To overcome this, you just need to speak to one person at a time.

Choose one member of your audience and dedicate your whole presentation to him or her. Just assume that everyone else is not paying attention. When someone asks you a question, change your focus to that person and answer the question as if the two of you are in a coffee shop chatting away. Isn’t that the most relaxing way to handle a crowd?

6) Be impressive with personal opinion

Just like blogging, everyone can copy an article and paste it onto their blog. However, people read blogs not only to know about things happening but to know what that particular blogger’s opinion is on the matter.

When you speak or give a presentation, try to squeeze in a few of your personal thoughts on the matter. Of course these should be prepared early on. However, you should make it as if the ideas are “just in” while you are presenting. That will differentiate your presentation from the rest, and when you see the interested look on the faces of your audience, it will elevate your presentation to another new level, a level where you start having fun.

7) Have fun experimenting

This is the most important tips of all. Have fun with the crowd. Try new ways to give the best presentation to your audience. Maybe experiment with a new funny approach, or walk around the hall instead of being static on the stage. Have fun with experimenting on human behavior and you will see that public speaking is not that bad after all.

Remember that there are no failures, only different results.

Have fun!

4 Effective Presentation Techniques

Every once in a while, we are entrusted with the task of presentation. It may be to demo a new product, to present a plan or to explain a new process that you’ve helped create. Whatever the reason and however many presentations you’ve given before, it’s something that not everyone is comfortable doing.

Here are some of the presentation techniques that I’ve learnt in my experience to help you conduct an effective presentation.

Setting the stage

Always start with an intro. Take half a minute to introduce yourself to all the attendees. If the demo is between 2 teams, your team has to be introduced as well, in which case it is better to let everyone introduce themselves. I say a half a minute for each person attending. Same goes for the other team in the room or on the phone or on the screen (video conferencing). This way you set the stage for a collaborative, interactive meeting. I will talk more about this later in this post.

Do a brief intro on the subject of the demo. If you are doing a demo of a new product or an updated version of the product, take a few minutes to talk about the product, its purpose, the business need, etc. Take 3 minutes tops.

Reserve a minute to explain the structure of your presentation. Obviously, you have thought through the topics you will cover, the depth to which you will go, etc. So, don’t keep it a secret; provide a “roadmap”. You don’t want anyone getting lost. It is a good habit to give handouts of this “roadmap” to everyone - a one pager.

Setting the stage should take you around 5 to 10 mins, depending on the number of people attending. I say keep the audience to around 10 people to have an effective presentation, unless of course you are Martin Luther King or Obama.

Force a pause

When you dive into the meat of your presentation, do not talk away as if there is no end. It may sound like you are rambling. You do this maybe because you are fast talker by nature or maybe you’re just plain nervous. In any case, a presentation needs “forced pauses”. To be effective, you have to cultivate this habit. You want to give an opportunity for the audience to digest all the information and think through it for a minute or two. A good practice is to plan your “forced pauses” out such that you can invite questions from your audience.

In the beginning, I know it will be tough to implement this but trust me: you will get used to it.

Don’t do all the talking

Make it interactive. Pass the ball around whenever you can. Let everyone participate. Remember when you attended a demo meeting and hoped no one will notice you dozing off. Well, you did that because you were bored. It is not (always) your fault. I say the presenter made it boring. He or she did not invoke your thoughts and make it interesting enough for you. So, when you are the presenter, please don’t make the same mistake. Let everyone participate. Think of it as a few moments you introduce to help you relax and refocus.

Ice-breakers

The most effective presentations or meetings that I’ve attended were those that were informative and enjoyable at the same time. These are meetings where the presenter or an attendee sneaks in some witty remarks - the ice-breakers.

How many, how often and what kind of jokes you introduce will matter here and if you push it too far over the limit, it can kill your presentation and most likely you would never present again. So, I must warn you that this technique is not for everyone. Its success is very dependent on your wits, the timing, the audience and most importantly your presentation style, which will differ from person to person. But if you can work it, you have a powerful presentation tool.

These are some of the many techniques that will make you an effective presenter. You may already be one or you maybe one in the making. Do send in your comments and share your tips and tricks with the rest of the world. Don’t keep it a secret.

10 Tips for More Effective PowerPoint Presentations

“Oh no! Not another boring PowerPoint presentation! My eyes, my eyes…!!!”

How much does it suck to be in the audience for yet another drawn-out, boring, lifeless slideshow? Worse yet, how much does it such to be the one giving it?

The truth is, bad PowerPoint happens to good people, and quite often the person giving the presentation is just as much a victim as the poor sods listening to her or him.

Here are ten tips to help you add a little zing! to your next presentation. They are, of course, far from comprehensive, but they’re a start. Feel free to share your own tips in the comments.

1. Write a script.

A little planning goes a long way. Most presentations are written in PowerPoint (or some other presentation package) without any sort of rhyme or reason.

That’s bass-ackwards. Since the point of your slides is to illustrate and expand what you are going to say to your audience. You should know what you intend to say and then figure out how to visualize it. Unless you are an expert at improvising, make sure you write out or at least outline your presentation before trying to put together slides.

And make sure your script follows good storytelling conventions: give it a beginning, middle, and end; have a clear arc that builds towards some sort of climax; make your audience appreciate each slide but be anxious to find out what’s next; and when possible, always leave ‘em wanting more.

2. One thing at a time, please.

At any given moment, what should be on the screen is the thing you’re talking about. Our audience will almost instantly read every slide as soon as it’s displayed; if you have the next four points you plan to make up there, they’ll be three steps ahead of you, waiting for you to catch up rather than listening with interest to the point you’re making.

Plan your presentation so just one new point is displayed at any given moment. Bullet points can be revealed one at a time as you reach them. Charts can be put on the next slide to be referenced when you get to the data the chart displays. Your job as presenter is to control the flow of information so that you and your audience stay in sync.

3. No paragraphs.

Where most presentations fail is that their authors, convinced they are producing some kind of stand-alone document, put everything they want to say onto their slides, in great big chunky blocks of text.

Congratulations. You’ve just killed a roomful of people. Cause of death: terminal boredom poisoning.

Your slides are the illustrations for your presentation, not the presentation itself. They should underline and reinforce what you’re saying as you give your presentation — save the paragraphs of text for your script. PowerPoint and other presentation software have functions to display notes onto the presenter’s screen that do not get sent to the projector, or you can use notecards, a separate word processor document, or your memory. Just don’t put it on the screen – and for goodness’ sake, if you do for some reason put it on the screen, don’t stand with your back to your audience and read it from the screen!

4. Pay attention to design.

PowerPoint and other presentation packages offer all sorts of ways to add visual “flash” to your slides: fades, swipes, flashing text, and other annoyances are all too easy to insert with a few mouse clicks.

Avoid the temptation to dress up your pages with cheesy effects and focus instead on simple design basics:

* Use a sans serif font for body text. Sans serifs like Arial, Helvetica, or Calibri tend to be the easiest to read on screens.
* Use decorative fonts only for slide headers, and then only if they’re easy to read. Decorative fonts –calligraphy, German blackface, futuristic, psychotic handwriting, flowers, art nouveau, etc. – are hard to read and should be reserved only for large headlines at the top of the page. Better yet, stick to a classy serif font like Georgia or Baskerville.
* Put dark text on a light background. Again, this is easiest to read. If you must use a dark background – for instance, if your company uses a standard template with a dark background – make sure your text is quite light (white, cream, light grey, or pastels) and maybe bump the font size up two or three notches.
* Align text left or right. Centered text is harder to read and looks amateurish. Line up all your text to a right-hand or left-hand baseline – it will look better and be easier to follow.
* Avoid clutter. A headline, a few bullet points, maybe an image – anything more than that and you risk losing your audience as they sort it all out.

5. Use images sparingly

There are two schools of thought about images in presentations. Some say they add visual interest and keep audiences engaged; others say images are an unnecessary distraction.

Both arguments have some merit, so in this case the best option is to split the difference: use images only when they add important information or make an abstract point more concrete.

While we’re on the subject, absolutely do not use PowerPoint’s built-in clipart. Anything from Office 2003 and earlier has been seen by everyone in your audience a thousand times – they’ve become tired, used-up clichés, and I hopefully don’t need to tell you to avoid tired, used-up clichés in your presentations. Office 2007 and non-Office programs have some clipart that isn’t so familiar (though it will be, and soon) but by now, the entire concept of clipart has about run its course – it just doesn’t feel fresh and new anymore.

6. Think outside the screen.

Remember, the slides on the screen are only part of the presentation – and not the main part. Even though you’re liable to be presenting in a darkened room, give some thought to your own presentation manner – how you hold yourself, what you wear, how you move around the room. You are the focus when you’re presenting, no matter how interesting your slides are.

7. Have a hook.

Like the best writing, the best presentation shook their audiences early and then reel them in. Open with something surprising or intriguing, something that will get your audience to sit up and take notice. The most powerful hooks are often those that appeal directly to your audience’s emotions – offer them something awesome or, if it’s appropriate, scare the pants off of them. The rest of your presentation, then, will be effectively your promise to make the awesome thing happen, or the scary thing not happen.

8. Ask questions.

Questions arouse interest, pique curiosity, and engage audiences. So ask a lot of them. Build tension by posing a question and letting your audience stew a moment before moving to the next slide with the answer. Quiz their knowledge and then show them how little they know. If appropriate, engage in a little question-and-answer with your audience, with you asking the questions.

9. Modulate, modulate, modulate.

Especially when you’ve done a presentation before, it can be easy to fall into a drone, going on and on and on and on and on with only minimal changes to your inflection. Always speak as if you were speaking to a friend, not as if you are reading off of index cards (even if you are). If keeping up a lively and personable tone of voice is difficult for you when presenting, do a couple of practice run-throughs. If you still can’t get it right and presentations are a big part of your job, take a public speaking course or join Toastmasters.

10. Break the rules.

As with everything else, there are times when each of these rules – or any other rule you know – won’t apply. If you know there’s a good reason to break a rule, go ahead and do it. Rule breaking is perfectly acceptable behavior – it’s ignoring the rules or breaking them because you just don’t know any better that leads to shoddy boring presentations that lead to boredom, depression, psychopathic breaks, and eventually death. And you don’t want that, do you?

The Six Best Ways to Get Rich…

We tend to assume that if we work hard and save money then one day we will end up wealthy. This is wishful thinking. We are more likely to end up with some modest but useful savings. If you want to accumulate serious wealth then there a number of approaches you can use and some are much more effective than others. The best ways are as follows:

1. Start your own business and eventually sell it.This is the most effective and proven way to become rich. If you can find a new approach to a customer need and build a profitable business that addresses that need then you have created real value. It could be a cleaning business, a hairdresser’s, a consultancy or an investment bank. It will probably take years of very hard work to build up the enterprise. Most new businesses fail so the risks are high. You need all the skills, dynamism, perseverance and diligence of an entrepreneur. But if you can pull it off the potential rewards are huge. This is how many of the seriously wealthy people did it.
2. Join a start-up and get stock. If you can accumulate equity positions in one or more start-up companies then there is an opportunity for a serious capital gain if the company thrives and either floats or is sold to a larger enterprise. Only a small minority of start-ups succeed in realising large capital gains so the odds are not good. However, you can use your judgement to see which business idea and which management team are likely to succeed. Early employees in Apple, Google and Microsoft became millionaires on this basis.
3. Exploit your skill as a self-employed expert. If you can develop a marketable skill and retain your independence then you can reap considerable rewards. This is how sports stars, authors and entertainers become rich. In general the self-employed expert has greater earnings opportunities than one who works for a company. There are risks and you have to have something special. Your success is in your own hands so this is a popular route for people who have developed a skill and want to strike out on their own.
4. Develop property. Buying, developing and selling property is a well-established way to build a significant capital position. One of the key elements is that by borrowing money you can gain leverage on your investment. Say you borrow $200,000 and put in $50,000 of your own to buy a property for $250,000. Then you develop the property and sell it for $400,000. The property has increased in value by 60% but your $50,000 has now grown fourfold to $200,000. You have to select the right properties in the right areas and develop them wisely. You are at risk from booms and busts in the property market. However, in the long term this remains a proven way to accumulate wealth.
5. Build a portfolio of stocks and shares. If you can make steady investments in stocks over a long period, choose wisely and reinvest the dividends then you can build a large store of wealth. Of course stocks can go down as well as up and many small investors lose heart when their portfolio plunges. But over the long-term equities are as good an investment as property and much more liquid. Stock market crashes represent great buying opportunities for those with cash and strong nerves.
6. Inherit wealth. It helps if you were born to successful or wealthy parents but failing that, you could marry fortuitously!

Here’s a few more ideas that are not necessarily bad but are somewhat riskier if your goal is wealth:

1. Work in a steady job, cut back expenditures and save in the bank. This is prudent practice and reduces your financial risk but is not an effective method of becoming rich. You should keep your expense within your income but if you want to make serious money then you must significantly boost your income or find ways to multiply your capital. Revisit some of the ideas above.
2. Be an inventor. Invent a something that everyone needs and patent your invention. Then licence out your invention and watch the royalties roll in. This is another very difficult route to wealth. Some inventors do get rich this way but securing the patent is arduous and signing a good licensing deal is not easy. However more big companies are looking outside for innovations they can market so it is not impossible.
3. Gamble.We hear about lottery winners and poker stars so this approach can sometimes work but the numbers are so unfavourable that it represents a lousy plan for becoming rich. You are strongly advised to avoid this method and use one of the first six above.

There are more important things in life than accumulating wealth. Who wants to end up rich, unloved, lonely and in poor health? However, if you can enjoy a balanced life and at the same time become rich, why not do so? Plan your route and relish the journey!

Maintaining Success: Keeping Momentum Without Going Crazy

Putting in some extra effort at work can pay off. You can get a promotion or a raise, or wind up on a choice project. The same goes with your personal finances — going the extra mile can help you pay off a debt early or save up for a purchase. You can push through to success in just about anything. But once you’ve achieved your goal, it can be hard to keep up that level of effort. If you’ve been staying late every night to finish a project, you don’t want your boss to start thinking that’s the level of effort you can commit to every project. If you cut way down on your expenses, you don’t want to live a spartan lifestyle forever.

Just the same, however, you’ve seen your work pay off. You don’t necessarily want to give up every perk that all that extra work got you. In order to find balance, you have to find a way to keep that momentum going, without driving yourself over the edge with all that effort.

Looking for Balance

Keeping up an extreme pace for weeks or even months can turn your extraordinary effort into something that you consider quite normal. That trap can make it hard to take a step back and decide whether you can really keep up this level of effort. However, it’s a necessary step: when you’ve accomplished your goal, considering the work that got you there is important. Of course, your work alone isn’t the cost of completing a project or reaching a goal. There are other costs, like the time you’ve been able to spend with your friends and family, your own comfort or even your health.

Life isn’t a balance sheet, but you can tell the difference between your lifestyle at a project’s beginning and at its end. Depending on the benefits, you may decide that keeping up your exertion is well worth it: maybe getting a raise means that you’re getting paid enough to make an increase in your workload well worth your while. But, then again, you might decide that you need to reintroduce yourself to a few things that have been missing in your life: if you stopped going out entirely in order to save up money, allowing yourself the occasional night out isn’t the end of the world — and it might do you a little good.

If you can decide just what you’ve cut that you want back, you can tell just how much effort you are willing to put into keeping momentum on your goal. Think about the example of saving money by cutting entertainment expenses: you may be willing to continue to keep those expenses down, but with at least a little bit of a budget for fun with your friends. You won’t negate all that hard work of saving money — keeping up at least some of the momentum of your original goal and maintaining your success — but not depriving yourself of all entertainment.

Setting Up Balance

Once you’ve got an idea of how far you’ll go to maintain your success, you can go about reintroducing balance to your life. You may need to inform a few people of your plan to do so, though. If you’ve been putting in 12-hour workdays, it’s probably a good idea to inform your boss of the fact that you won’t be doing that anymore. Many employers will revise their expectations upwards if you’ve gone the extra mile — it stops being extra and becomes required. You don’t want an employer to think you’re suddenly slacking off. But sitting down and talking out the matter can be all that it takes to step down to a more sustainable schedule.

Depending on just what your goal was, you may find that other considerations must be made. Perhaps your friends or family members changed their schedules in deference to yours: changing that schedule back may be difficult. Being willing to compromise might come in handy if you are ready to cut back on your effort in other areas. Unfortunately, creating a bit more balance in your life may not be as simple as waving a magic wand, but it possible with a little consideration.

Key to creating balance is ensuring that you do follow through on any commitments you made upon achieving your goal. Maybe you set a secondary goal — something that provided a little continuation and helped you take advantage of the rush of meeting your initial ambition. Or maybe you have a new project set for you by someone else as a product of your prior effort. You may not be in a position to throw quite as much at your new goal as your last, but if it is important enough for you to follow through on, you’ll find yourself putting at least some effort into it. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as long as you’re able to maintain balance with other parts of your life in the long run. But you may need to set a few initial limits to ensure that any new projects won’t consume your every waking moment.

With a little care, all that extra effort won’t become an every day expectation. If you’re willing to prioritize other parts of your life, you can build on your successes and keep some momentum without working yourself to the point of going crazy.