Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and all the uncertainty it brought about, I managed to plan, produce and execute an ambitious project which had been an idea for many years. There were many hurdles and competing priorities, but in the end we got there.
In this blog I share what I learned through this experience. I hope it inspires you to take on a large project that’s been on your bucket list, so that you too can see your project come to life.
Tip 1: Commit
It was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Australia we were shutting our borders to overseas travellers, our government was urging overseas Australians to return home as soon as possible, and we were going into strict lockdown. The future looked uncertain, and a sense of collective anxiety descended.
Toilet paper suddenly became a scarce resource and we were glued to hourly updates to find out the latest numbers: how many new cases, how many locally acquired, how many deaths.
A cascade of cancellations ensued: overseas trips, film projects, conferences and gatherings were first postponed, then rescheduled, then rescheduled again, and eventually cancelled. It was a year of conflicting emotions: dread, hope, shock, gratitude.
In amongst the uncertainty of 2020, I made the decision to focus and follow through on a project that had been bubbling away in the background for several years. It was a project that I had wanted to produce in order to share my knowledge of video production with thought leaders who traditionally are not trained in those skills: academics, educators, researchers.
In my work I had seen the power of video to effectively share ideas and information in a more engaging way than some of the more traditional outputs of research: such as journal articles and PhD theses.
This need was becoming abundantly clear as entire swathes of the workforce moved to work from home: suddenly needing to understanding camera presentation skills and video recording. If there was ever a time for this training course to be made, this was it.
You always have two choices: your commitment versus your fear.
– Sammy Davis Jr.
Tip 2: Take Action
There were a few false starts, but each of them was a start: a follow-through on my commitment to turn this idea into a reality.
Sometimes we wait for motivation to strike, but most of the time, we need to take the action first: which then leads to motivation. This may sound counterintuitive, but it works.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
– Jim Ryun
Tip 3: Break It Down
Look at your large lofty goal, and map out all the sub-goals you will need to complete in order to reach the final goal. What are the steps you can take that will help you reach the final goal? Set realistic timeframes to complete each sub-goal, and put these dates and tasks into your calendar so that you have deadlines for yourself.
Be realistic with all of your goals, and what it will take to achieve each one. If you set goals that are unrealistic, chances are that you will feel overwhelmed and will give up completely. There is no need for that.
There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.
– Desmond Tutu
Here is a good article from Psychology Today about breaking large goals into smaller ones.
Tip 4: Don’t Give Up
After some false starts but a commitment to follow through (and plenty of support along the way), I persevered throughout 2020: battling against conflicting priorities and the recurring feeling that this mountain was too high to climb.
By keeping focused on my end goal while setting realistic, smaller targets (that inevitably moved as priorities shifted), I trudged through 2020 and pushed to complete the project I had set out to. Along with the uncertainty of the pandemic and all the consequences that flowed and flow from it, the need for people to use video technology effectively, became a thing of certainty.
The fast transition to working from home meant that communicating via web cameras in virtual meetings became a required skill. Seeing this trend was additional motivation to keep on going: there was a clear need for this course to exist in the world.
Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.
– Sam Levenson
Tip 5: Maintain Quality
I designed and developed this course to be comprehensive and structured for the learner. It was a huge project to complete (41 lessons, 41 quizzes, and 50 videos spread across eight topic areas), but I felt compelled to effectively “hand over” my knowledge to those who I felt could most benefit.
While the temptation to release a smaller, simpler course was there, I had committed to creating something that would give learners the whole picture. I knew that if I only created something that was a snippet of the original idea, I would not be satisfied and would inevitably feel that I had not met my goal.
Art resides in the quality of doing, process is not magic.
– Charles Eames
Tip 6: Share
After 10 months, countless hours and years’ worth of ideas and skill acquisition, I finally launched my project into the world. It is an online learning platform that teaches learners how to use the power of video to share their knowledge. This includes the fundamentals of video production, how to present professionally on camera, how to write effective scripts for video, practical tips to shoot and edit higher quality videos, and how to share finished videos with the right audience.
Speaking of knowledge transfer, please go ahead and enjoy the fruits of my labour. The first topic is completely free and easy to access: teaching you why video is such powerful tool for communication.
It may take longer than you think, and you may experience many moments of frustration, but now that I am on the other side I can safely say that it is worth the effort. After all, the joy may come from the journey itself: by completing a big project, the results may not be what you expect, but you will have achieved your overarching goal and come through -with new learnings and experiences that will stay with you for life.
– Daisy De Windt
