Nimble Doesn’t Mean Small

I had a fantastic meeting yesterday about a new project. My buddy Kelvin and I are starting church creative meetups. We want to help church creatives connect and communicate. We want to create a support group of sorts.

So we met at a sweet little coffee shop and dreamed. Shortly after the process began our dream became huge. We would launch a website. Get sponsors. Get swag. Create a nationwide network of meetups. This thing was going to be huge.

But then I stopped it. I pulled it in. I said no to some amazing ideas.

I knew if this thing got too huge, it would quickly get out of my hands. It’s not that Kelvin and I couldn’t pull it off…but we probably never would. We’d need a year of planning and a large budget backed by many sponsors. It would probably never happen. So we reigned our dreaming in.

But that doesn’t mean this won’t be a huge idea. Sunday| Magazine is a big idea. It requires over 40 writers, 15 graphic designers, 4 copy editors, etc. It’s a pretty huge project. But it’s nimble. I only spend an hour or two each day on the project. There are no employees. There’s only a $50 charge from MailChimp each month (that hurts pretty badly). But Sunday| Mag is super nimble.

This is how I’m approaching my projects from now on. I don’t need to make them excessively complicated or big. Grand ideas don’t need to be clunky.

So every time I sit to brainstorm a new, genius idea…I streamline the process. Will this great idea give the results I need? Is it worth the effort for the small return?

What nimble or small tasks will bring the biggest results. That’s what I devote my time to.

Maybe this isn’t the right thought process for everyone. But it’s right for me. Is it right for you?

[Photo Credit]