That's what is currently written across the top of the whiteboard in my office, The Yellow Studio. In parenthesis, I wrote: (Don't Be Afraid Of Scaling). A friend uttered that challenge to me months ago. The context? Professional pursuits. Namely, trying to figure out how to effectively serve more clients. Shortly after that, I spent some quiet time as I am wont to do. Pondering time.

Don't fret if you have no interest in hearing about professional or work pursuits. The lessons here transcend that. I think we'll be able to make a solid application to just about any endeavor. In fact, I'll be sharing my own insights in a variety of personal and professional pursuits. Because they universally share that whole "make the biggest difference" idea. I mean, who wants to pursue something that makes a minuscule difference? ;) The Biggest Difference? First things first, we have to define the biggest difference. It's ridiculously individual.

You've heard me talk about "the ideal outcome." In fact, I own that domain because it has become such a staple in my coaching practice. Few things are more powerful than each of us coming to terms with - and seeing clearly - our ideal outcome. While others may try to persuade us that the journey is the thing, I'm always challenging clients to gain a clear focus on what they most would like to achieve - "the ideal outcome."

Here's the thing about the biggest difference or the ideal outcome - they're subject to change. In fact, they should change when we're armed with new insights, information, and experiences. Things change! We change! So should our ideal outcome.

About a month or so ago I released a podcast episode at my work podcast, GrowGreat.com. It was a podcast born from these ideas. It was my first mention of all this stuff that currently is being figured out. I titled it, Traction & Momentum: Pursuing The Things That Work After Killing The Things That Don’t.

Prior to recording that show I had a few conversations with people about "irons in the fire." We all have irons in the fire, a metaphor for pursuing a variety of things that we hope will succeed. Some of us have lots of irons in the fire, and we keep putting more irons in the fire. Others of us are more selective and careful about the irons we're willing to place into the flame. Me? I ebb and flow. Sometimes I'm selective. Sometimes I'm more willing to say, "Yes."

Experience has taught me that what we say "NO" to can be as important, or more important, than what we say "YES" to. In the past decade, I've been more of a say YES guy.

On my whiteboard below the stuff you see in that picture above, I drew some flames to represent the fire. Then I drew a number of lines to represent the various pursuits that are irons in the fire. I drew everything I do. Professional. Personal. All the activities I engage in daily or weekly. Then I drew two cross-diagonal lines through the "irons" I wanted to kill. I'm still working on it, but right now there are 7 irons in the fire. I have the kill lines across 2 of them. I have a question mark on 1 of the others. That leaves 4 irons I currently think I'd like to keep in the fire. I'm not sure this is how it'll end up because I'm still figuring it out.

The point is, not every iron in our fire is going to get hot enough to be productive. Some will. Some won't. There are two challenges: a) figuring out which irons you care most about and b) figuring out which irons have the greatest opportunity to get hot (gain traction and momentum). Neither of those is necessarily easy.

Think of a time when you felt stretched thin. Maybe it's now. Maybe it once was. Maybe it feels like it's always been that way.

Try writing down - on paper or a whiteboard - the activities. Get them all down. In full disclosure, I didn't write down all of mine because some of them are non-negotiable. That is, they're just so important they're a given. It's not about whether or not I can make the biggest dif...