I usually find the first week of September to be a crushing collision with reality. Holidays for me are often a time of reflection and inspiration and I usually can’t wait to get back to my desk and Get Stuff Done. The reality is the kids always go back to school a bit later later than I expect (my youngest left the house for his first day back 15 minutes before my first meeting today, fortunately there were no last minute logistical issues), my inboxes are clogged with all sorts and, as usual, I get a bout of manflu to slow everything down to a grind.

Yesterday’s Net Zero Business Academy webinar reminded me that I have the solution to get things moving when things feel hard. Here’s the exercise with which I close each NZBA session:

1. What 3 things have you learnt today?
2. As a result of these three what would you like to be doing differently as a result in, say, 6 months?
3. For each, what action do you need to do in the next few days to get that ball rolling?

The idea is to take the big, blobby concepts I’ve taught them, the kind of thought I have on holiday, focus it down on a tangible target, and then identify the first steps towards that target. And I find that once I take those baby steps, the fear recedes and the whole thing feels doable. Momentum builds in my brain.

This exercise is a simplified form of ‘backcasting’ – the technique I use with my clients to develop Sustainability Strategies and action plans. Net Zero and Zero Waste are big, scary and somewhat nebulous ambitions. The only difference is strategies have longer timeframes, so I put in one intermediate stage to break that up. But the concept is the same: by defining what success would look like and then what needs to be done, you are chunking those targets down into digestible bites.

Try it – it really works!