Have you ever had an impression to do something that scares you? Today I share the ICAN steps to help you overcome fear and reach your goal. (Plus you get a sneak preview of my new song, Don't Give Up.)

What do you do when an intriguing but scary idea pops into your head, and you're pretty sure God wants you to take some action?

4 Simple Steps to a Achieve a Scary Goal

Let me introduce the acronym ICAN to help you remember 4 simple steps.

1. Impression/Inspiration
2. Communicate with God
3. Act on baby steps
4. Navigate continuously until you reach your goal

The Project I've Been Working for 1 and 1/2 years

To show you how I have used the ICAN method, I am giving my podcasting audience the first peek at a new song I have felt God prompting me to share for the past couple of years. This project scares me and excites me all at the same time.

The problem: I knew absolutely NOTHING about producing a song professionally even though I have been writing music since I was a teenager.

My New Song: Don't Give Up

I was so inspired by Nina's story of sharing her very personal music this past week. After the podcast recording was over, she and I sat and chatted about I, like her, felt God nudging me to share my music as well.

I was very candid and had some open conversations with God--like, what the heck? One more thing to learn? Wasn't podcasting and writing a book enough?

But, with a LOT of help from some amazing people, I have navigated this scary new arena with success and am please to share my new song, Don't Give Up.

#tamarakanderson #storiesofhopeinhardtimes #podcast #hope #God #hardtimes #newsong #sneakpeek #musicpreview #goals #keepgoing #dontgiveup #moveforward #progress #fear #overcome

Transcription

You can find the transcription of today's episode here: https://www.tamarakanderson.com/podcasts/4-simple-steps-to-a-achieve-a-scary-goal

Have you ever had an impression to do something that really

scared you? It can be something big, it might be something

small. Whatever it is, I'm going to share with you four, easy to

remember steps that you can use to help you reach your goal.

Plus, I'm going to share with you what I've been working on

for the last year and a half as kind of a bonus at the end. Stay

tuned.

Welcome to Stories of Hope in Hard Times, the show that

explores how people endure and even thrive in difficult times,

all with God's help. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson, join me

on a journey to find inspiring stories of hope and wisdom

learned in life's hardest moments.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Stories of Hope in

Hard Times podcast. I'm your host Tamara K Anderson. And on

today's episode, I have something really fun I'm going

to do with you. But first, I want you to imagine that you're

kind of going through life. And things are going pretty good.

When out of the blue, a little thought pops into your head,

that you should do something. And it's something maybe you

don't know anything about. And because you don't know anything

about it, it kind of scares you. Have you ever had that happen to

you before, where you kind of push it away, and it just keeps

popping back into your head, you should do this, you should do

this. Kind of like a persistent, nagging mom or friend or older

sibling.

So guys, if you've ever had this happen, maybe God is trying to

inspire you to do something. And often the steps God wants us to

take are scary and hard because we haven't done them before.

It's something that's going to make a stretch something that's

going to make us grow. And sometimes, we're not sure we

want to do that. So if you've ever felt that way, and you felt

scared by a persistent thought that you're like, I should do

this, I should do this, you are not alone. And this podcast

today is for you.

So what do you do? Obviously, you can act on it or ignore it,

some people do. act on it, some people ignore it. And it's

ultimately your choice. But I'm going to talk to you today about

four simple steps that help us move forward from the point of

Okay, this scares me to death, to Hey, maybe I can do this

after all. And these are things that I've employed several,

several, several times in my life. And that Nina, who we

listened to last week has also used in her life. And we'll talk

about that a little bit later.

So the first thing I want to teach you is this, ICAN method.

And so I just want you to picture the word ICAN. ICAN

those. That's the acronym we're going to use today. four steps.

ICAN first thing. One, you get the impression. All right, the

idea pops into your head. Now, Napoleon Hill has a really great

quote. And he said, "whatever your mind can conceive and

believe it can achieve." So when inspiration strikes, maybe it is

something you think I am not capable of doing that. You might

not be. But if you took baby steps towards it, you might

achieve it. You never know.

Let me let me just brainstorm here with you for a minute.

Pretend you have the thought that you want to do a painting

for your house, a painting that you can hang on the wall. Now,

maybe it's something totally impressionistic. Whatever you

imagine this can be like, you can figure it out, you can dream

it up. You might need to take some art lessons, you might need

to watch some YouTube videos, but breaking it down into baby

steps. Well, I want it to have these colors and what would it

be? Would it be a flower? Is it a landscape scene? Whatever it

is, you envision what you want it to be just like Napoleon Hill

said, "If you can dream it, you can achieve it." And then think

about it. Imagine-- it so the first thing is receiving the

inspiration and not saying no. Okay. Just let yourself imagine

it hanging on your wall. Imagine you looking at it. What would it

look like what the colors evoke in you what the scene look like?

Imagine it that's the first step.

The second step is communicate with God. Now, God is the great

Creator. And as His children, we are creators in embryos. So

whatever we can conceive we can create with His help. And if

we're struggling at all, if we're fighting against the idea

or impression or thinking, I can't do it, He is the best

person to talk to you. So the first one is impression. Second

one is communicate with God. There's a great verse in Psalm

five, one through three. And then I'm going to read one

additional verse where the psalmist says, "Give ear to my

words overboard, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the

voice of my cry, my King and my God. For unto thee will I pray.

My voice, shalt thou hear in the morning, oh, Lord. In the

morning, will I direct my prayer to thee and we'll look up." then

skip to verse eight, "Lead me, oh Lord, in my righteousness

because of mine enemies." Now, here we have David talking to

the Lord. He's meditating about something, he's praying, and

he's crying unto him.

Sometimes the ideas we get are scary. Sometimes we have to pray

against our enemies, sometimes our enemies are is, is within

us, that our own selves, we've got a lot of negative self talk

going on. And so the important thing when we're talking to God

is to be 100%, open and honest, God, I got this thought that I

should do this, write a book, start a podcast, put a painting

on the wall that I've done... I want to start this business.

I want to teach my child how to o sign language, I want to start

a youth program at my churc , whatever it is that you'

e dreaming up, you can make a difference. And God is going

o inspire each of us to o different things, because

e each have different talents.

And so when you're communicating with God, give him all your

concerns, give them all to Him. And then listen for ideas and

answers. God doesn't always give us the big picture in the end.

Sometimes he wants virus, okay, you need to do this. And it is a

big picture item. But often He inspires us to take small steps.

So when you're presenting God with, here's my challenges. If

If, for example, we're going back to the painting example,

God, I don't know who to talk to about painting. I don't know

where to buy the stuff. I don't know what product to use, you

know, start giving this to God. And maybe He'll give that to all

remember your friend Susan, I've had that happen where I've had

to go to God, I don't know where to start with this. And he'll

inspire me who in my friends or associates I need to talk to,

and they can give me a better idea. Or you can post something

on the internet. Hey, guys, are any of you artists out there?

That are your friends? And one of them might answer and you can

start talking to them.

So often ideas will come as we communicate with God. Or maybe

we need to do a little bit of, okay, God, I'm going to watch a

couple YouTubes on this. And I'm going to try to find some

direction because looking for answers and listening for

answers are the way God speak to us. Sometimes he speaks to us.

Often he speaks to us through other people. And so we just

need to listen.

This is also where you can talk to him about your fears. Because

let's be honest, God often gives us things that are scary for us.

And when we have scary things, it's often because we just don't

know enough about it. And so as we talk to professionals or

something like that, people who know more about it that will

often help to relieve some of our fears or taking a tiny baby

step in the right direction will often help relieve our fears or

we can ask God to help us. God help me be brave to take these

first steps because this is a really scary thing to me. And

walk with your hand in His as as you go forward.

Okay, so we've got ICAN we have I which is inspiration C which

is communicate with God. A A is the third step which is Act on

baby steps. So Og Mandino, I was reading the book, the greatest

salesman in the world this morning and one of the quotes

from there just jumped out at me because I knew I was going to be

talking about this today. He says,"Action alone is the tinder

which ignites my dreams, my plans my goals into a living

force. Action is the food and drink which will nourish my

success." So action, taking steps. Action is the thing that

moves us forward. It's propels this imagined idea into a living

force as Og Mandino says it will lead us down the path to

success. So you have to take action and action is often where

most people drop out. They get these great good ideas, and they

brainstorm about them. And then they don't do anything or they

take the first two steps and they're like, this is too hard.

I give up.

But in order to reach your goals, you can't do that. So act

on one little baby step. And then next time act on another

one, set goals, weekly goals, daily goals, monthly goals,

your, your imagined dream can take place. Talk to someone, do

some research, reach out to a mentor. I had a friend call me a

couple of months ago, and he said, Hey, Tamara, will you be

my mentor? And just kind of hold me accountable for this? Can I

just call you like, once a month? And I said, Sure,

absolutely. And so it's easy to reach out to people and just

say, Hey, will you help me? Will you be my mentor, we hold me

accountable? Because sometimes, when we go into goals, we give

up if we don't have somebody who we need to report to so find

somebody to report to.

One of the other quotes I wanted to share with you from that The

Greatest Salesman by Og Mandino says this, "Action reduces the

Lion of terror, to an ant, of equanimity." And equanimity.

Think of the word equal of something that is even evenness

of mind, especially under stress. So, action reduces this

lion of terror. So if you're feeling a lot of terror, if you

take even one baby step, it reduces the fear. And if you

take another baby step, it reduces the fear even more,

until your fear is just as big as an ant. What seemed like a

lion can be like an ant, if you're brave enough to move

forward. And you don't have to do it alone. You can have God by

your side, you can mentor by your sight, but take those baby

steps of action. And that is the biggest thing to help us conquer

fear. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "You do not have to see

the whole staircase. Just take the first step."

Okay. So ICAN-- inspiration, communicate with God, A is act

on baby steps, and N the last one Navigate continuously toward

your goal. So you've started taking baby steps. Navigating

continuously is that forth step you got to keep moving.

Confucius said, "It does not matter how slowly you go as long

as you do not stop." And I love that. Sometimes goals take us a

long time because we have so many things going on. I know for

me, as a mom, a wife, and a podcaster, and author and all

these other things have going on. It's hard for me to juggle

things. And so goals sometimes take me a long time to reach.

But as long as I'm still moving forward, that's the key.

Sometimes, I'm going to tell you about something that took me a

year and a half in just a second here.

If you reach an obstacle, this is where you go back to that

communicate with God step reach an obstacle, talk to God, "God,

I've reached this thing that I just can't seem to get around.

What should I do about it?" And sometimes you have to move it

over for a little bit. Back in the verse I shared in Psalm it

talked about David praying in the morning. I've noticed that

by give God a challenge or my subconscious a challenge to

solve at night before I go to bed, that sometimes in the wee

hours of the morning, my brain just--I know the answer. I know

what to do. And sometimes it takes a couple of days for me to

figure it out. But if we give challenges to God, often He'll

help us figure them out and we can move forward. So don't let

obstacles stop you sometimes you have to go around or shift, or

go up, or down, or back you can get through it you can get by

it. Religious influencer Lisa Turkhurst said, "Progress, just

make progress. It's okay to have setbacks and the need for do

overs. It's okay to draw a line in the sand and start over

again. And again, just make sure you're moving the line forward.

Move forward, take baby steps, then change will come and it

will be good." Isn't that awesome? I love that quote.

Just keep going. Keep moving forward. And you will make

progress on this dream, on this inspiration that you've got in

your mind. And God can help you do it. That's the ICAN can

inspiration, communicate with God, act and

then navigate-- keep going forward navigate, navigate

navigate.

Alright, so for an example of how I have been able to

implement these steps, I'm going to get a little bit raw and

personal with you about a journey that I've been on for

the last year and a half And that is this thought that God

gave me to start sharing my music. Guys, this thought is

still really scary for me. But the reason I'm telling you about

it is because I want you, my friend to hold me accountable

for this, too. So today, I'm going to let you take a peek

behind the scenes of a private conversation I had with our

guests from last week, Nina Angela Lee. And if you didn't

listen to her interview, she's talked about many, many amazing

things. But one of the things she talked about was being a

very, very private person and composing music for years. And

finally, her husband and God started inspiring her that she

needed to share these very, very personal songs with people. And

as she said this,it was like she was talking directly to me. Have

you ever had that happen?

And so, at the end of this episode, after we stopped

recording for the podcast, she and I had this conversation that

I'm going to now play for you. And it tells you a little bit of

my journey. And I might interject a little bit here and

there. So that you can see the ICAN method that I use just a

little bit more easily. So here you go.

Okay, I am going to tell you this, because Heavenly Father

was just kind of going, Hey, you! I've been a songwriter for

years too and I've just kind of all kept them just like you

just... so what you're telling your story, like she's talking

to me. Then just last year and a half, I've just felt Him saying

you need to start releasing some music. And He gave me a song I

needed to work on. And so I have just, you know, it's that

initial--One more thing. God, really? I've learned podcasting,

I've learned writing. And now you want me to dive into the

music? And at first I was just so overwhelmed, like I don't

know who to even talk to. But one of my neighbors happened to

seeing in Afterglow in the 80s. And so I had a good powwow with

him. And he was able to point me at least in the right direction,

walk this way, Tamara.

Okay, I'm going to pause really quick and jump in here again,

and just give you a little bit more background on some of the

process that I went through when I was talking to God as I was

coming in that communicating phase. And that first idea when

I was praying to God and said, God, I don't know who to talk

to, he inspired me with two people. And one of them I told

you about and the other was my kids piano teacher who has

composed a whole bunch of music, and I did a powwow with each of

them. And that gave me enough information to start moving

forward. But some of the people they told me to contact I was

having a really hard time contacting and finally I reached

out to one of them. And I said I cannot get a studio to call me

back. And this was in the middle of COVID. And so things were

just a little more challenging. And so he reached out and was

able to finally get somebody to talk to him. And he kind of

introduced us and I was able to get in. So sometimes you reach

obstacles, and you have to use the people you know, to help you

get past these obstacles. That's kind of both the communicate,

and then the action. Sometimes you're trying your best to take

action, but you just need somebody else to step in. So you

have to not be afraid to step out and act on some of these

things. And now I'll let you keep listening to the recording

here.

So I've been working with Jim Funk studios in North Salt Lake

and we've gotten the music and the soundtrack recorded and the

first song and I am. It's I recorded the vocals just this

month, and I'm just kind of like bracing myself during the mixing

process going. I have no idea what to do now.

Oh my gosh, that's so exciting. I'm so proud of you know,

So, I'm kind of at that cusp, where I feel like I'm standing

on the edge of a cliff going, now what?

And it will be a beautiful thing because Heavenly Father just

moves things, and arranges things you just got to hold on

for the ride.

I know and that's kind of what I feel like I'm like...gasp. Thank

you for sharing your story, at least for me. I needed to hear

that today. And and I do I just feel like I'm at another point

where I'm like-- Here we go again, I don't know what I'm

doing. And I know He does. So I've just got to trust that that

next step into the darkness is putting me on the right next

path. Or I'm still trying to figure out how it all meshes

together, you know? But it's coming. It's coming.

Well, I'm excited to hear it.

Well, thank you. I'm, I'm excited and scared to death all

at the same time.

I understand. And that that fear will not kill, you know.

I know, it's fun and exciting and scary all at the same time,

as you well know. So yeah, I'm, I'm encouraged by your story,

because I'm like, okay, if Nina can do it, I can do it.

It's true, it's true.

All right, guys, that's the end of the recording that I wanted

to share with you. So as you can see, I had this goal. Actually,

God gave me the goal, I probably could have lived the rest of my

life without sharing any of my music with you guys. But I had

this idea that I really, really wanted to share this song with,

with you, my listeners, and that it would make a difference in

your life. And so even though it was super scary to me, I really,

and I battled it out with God via prayer for a little bit. He

helped me know what steps to take, and it's taken me a year

and a half, that kind of goes to down to that last step, keep

navigating forward, keep moving forward. Because some of these

things just take time. And it's just taking little steps. And

some there were some weeks, I didn't do anything at all. And

some weeks the ball was completely in the court of the

studio, and I had to wait for them to say, finish mixing

something or to be able to get a recording, maybe the guitarist

there, or the drummer there or, you know, some things are

completely out of my control. And so I just had to be flexible

as I was navigating forward, because some things I just had

to wait. And that's why it took so long.

So don't be discouraged if moving forward towards your goal

takes time. Maybe it takes more time than you thought. Be

patient, keep moving forward. And so I'm so excited that first

ICAN I listened to the inspiration. That's the first

step--I. C, communicated with God, I communicated with God

through this entire process. There were obstacles I just

could not have overcome on my own. A, act began taking steps I

began taking steps and the more I learned about music and

publishing a song professionally, it was still

intimidating. But I met some amazing people to help me along

the way. The guy, Jim Funk at funk studios that I've used is

just so kind to work with. And I was able to really express where

I was going with things and he was able to help them come make

it sound beautiful. And so even though I was a novice, he worked

with me as a novice, and we moved things forward. And so it

really, really worked out. And then I just kept going. It took

months and months and months to get everything to where it is.

And I am so excited to tell you that I actually have a finished

product for you now. And the song I'm going to share with you

the first verse in the chorus here on the podcast today.

Because you are my listeners and I love you. And it's going to

now be available on my website and please share it with friends

because this is one of those songs that came directly from

God. And I know He wants this song to get out to all of you it

meant a lot to me working on it through the COVID pandemic

because the theme is, "Don't Give Up." And and so I love the

message of the song. Even though I'm still scared to put it out

there, I am still honored to sha e it with you, my listeners as t

e first people who get to list n to this. So here it is. "Do

't Give Up," the first verse i the c

(Music playing) My Lord was so heavy, so heavy I broke. As I

lay on the floor all alone. I'd cried all my tears, and raged

all my fears, and now drained and empty I groaned. Where is

the rainbow, 'cause this is my storm. I knew I just couldn't go

on. Dear God come and save me, I want to give in. Then out of my

darkness I seemed to hear Him. Don't give up, even though

you've had enough. Someday you will understand that you're part

of God's great plan. So, don't give up, even though it's really

tough. You hang on. You are enough. God loves you. You are

His child.

What did you think guys? Did you like it? I hope you did. I hope

you did. I hope you share with friends. Share this podcast

ith friends you can share where hey can find it on my website,

ust go to TamarakAnderson.com an go to the store and that i

where we will have a place wher you can download the music. An

also buy the sheet music if yo want it. And the recording trac

if you want to sing along wit it, that's there too.

So that is my journey. And my promise to you is that you too

can use this ICAN-- these four simple steps to move you forward

and achieve any goal that you receive as inspiration. So get

your inspiration, communicate with God, act on it and navigate

forward, and you too, will achieve your dreams. Thanks for

listening. Hope on.

Hey, thanks so much for listening to today's show. If

you like what you heard, subscribe so you can get your

weekly dose of powerful stories of hope. I know there are many

of you out there who are going through a hard time and I hope

you found useful things that you can apply to your own life in

today's podcast. If you'd like to access the show notes of

today's show, please visit my website

storiesofhopepodcast.com. There you will find a summary of

today's show, the transcript, and one of my favorite

takeaways. You know, if someone kept coming to mind during

today's episode, perhaps that means that you should share this

episode with them. Maybe there was a story shared or quote or a

scripture verse that they really really need to hear. So go ahead

and share this podcast. May God bless you, especially if you are

struggling with hope to carry on and with the strength to keep

going when things get tough. Remember to walk with Christ and

He will help you bear the burden. And above all else,