Barbara Sher helps you to see beyond your obstacles

How will I ever do all the things I want to do? There are too many!

A closer look will show that the most common obstacles don't really exist at all.

The top obstacles for panicked Scanners
1. You fear critics
2. You've created a "See, it's impossible!" list
3. You've inadvertently made the project too big
4. You don't feel entitled to just do whatever you want
5. You think you're the problem
6. You're pulled in too many directions

Joanne's story
Joanne is avoiding what she believes is commitment. Any choice she'd make feels like it has great and ireversible consequences.

"I can't choose any career. What if I pick on that's second best? And what if I change my mind, which I absolutely know I'll do? See, my problem is that I want to be a psychologist, a composer, a writer, a teacher, a world traveler, and a painter. But everytime I begin to walk down one of these paths, sooner or later I get this horrible thought: "Am I sure that this is what I want o do with the rest of my life?" And that's the end of it."

The commitmentphobe's list of mistaken assumptions:
1. You must choose one and only one path in life
2. Everything you love has to be a career. Doing something for pleasure doesn't count
3. If you're not in love with your job, it wil be living hell
4. You have to get it right, because every career choice requires a huge investment of time and money
5. Once you make your choice, you must then serve a life sentence wih no chance of parole
6. If you're not passionate to the point of obsession, you'll never be content to give up all your other interests

There is one commitment you should make right up front: Commit yourself to give everything you've got to whatever you do, no matter how little time you have to do it. Holding back isn't good for anyone. To feel right, you must commit to the fullest life you're capable of.

Fact 1: A Scanner can choose many specialities: She can combine them or do them in sequence, do one as a job and another as a passionate hobby, or a dozen of other combinations.

Fact 2: A Scanner can use any decent job to support what she loves to do - and do it on her own time. See "The Good Enough Job" in previous entry.

Fact 3: A Scanner can invent her own career.

(extracts from "What do I do when I want to do Everything?" by Barbara Sher)