Two Minutes from a Fire, And a Lesson Every Course Creator Needs

I nearly set my house on fire once,  and the worst part is, it almost happened silently.

No crashing sounds. No dramatic warning. Just a thin, sharp smell that slipped into the air like a whisper saying: You’ve got about two minutes to pay attention.

I walked past the bathroom, stopped mid-step, and backed up. Something was wrong. The air had that kind of burnt edge to it, the kind that makes your chest tighten, anxiety set in before your brain has words for it.

I pushed the door open and saw smoke!

Not a lot. Just enough to be unmistakable and scary.

On the windowsill sat a small basket of potpourri. Decorative. Harmless. The sort of thing you buy once and then forget exists.

Except now it was smouldering.

Actually smouldering.

And sitting beside it, looking smug and innocent, was my makeup mirror. The magnifying side had caught the morning sun at exactly the right angle and turned it into a focused beam that was cooking those flowers like a science experiment I never meant to run.

Same sunlight that feels gentle on your face.

But focused? It was a weapon.

I grabbed the basket, flung open the window, and stood there laughing in that shaky, post-adrenaline way that says: Well, that could have been spectacularly stupid.

And as the smoke cleared, a realisation hit me with uncomfortable clarity:

The mirror didn’t add energy.
It aimed at the energy already present.

That is the entire story of why so many smart, capable people never finish their online courses.

Not because they’re lazy.
Not because they lack ideas.
But their effort is diffused rather than directed.

If you’ve ever tried to build a course, you know how this plays out. You sit down to outline your first module with noble intentions. Five minutes later, you’re deep in a video about funnels. Then pricing. Then, platform comparisons. Then the marketing strategy. Each click feels sensible. Professional. Like you’re being responsible. But at this point, you are totally overwhelmed.

Meanwhile, your actual course is sitting there untouched, like a construction site where everyone brought tools but nobody laid a brick.

Here’s the first punch, and it matters:

Scattered effort burns time. Focused effort builds things.

Most people don’t fail from a lack of motivation. They fail from diluted attention. Their energy is spread in so many directions that none of it stays long enough to build momentum.

And momentum is the engine of completion.

When everything feels urgent, curriculum, filming, editing, tech, branding, your brain starts bouncing between tasks. That bouncing is what exhausts you. Not the work itself. The switching.

So the rule is brutally simple and wildly effective:

Stop trying to build the whole course. Build the next finished piece.

One lesson. One asset. One outcome.

Finish it.

Then repeat.

The moment you do this, the project changes character. Your mind locks onto a target. Decisions accelerate. Progress becomes visible. And visible progress is addictive — it pulls you forward.

Which leads to the second punch:

Momentum is created by finishing, not by preparing.

You can prepare forever and never ship anything. The first completed lesson does more for your course than a month of perfect planning.

That’s why we push a discipline that feels small but acts huge: create before you consume.

You earn your research time by producing something first. Script a lesson. Record a segment. Build a slide. Only then do you look up information, and only to solve the problem directly in front of you.

Because here’s the uncomfortable truth most people dance around:

Learning without creating is procrastination dressed as productivity.

It feels smart. It feels safe. And it quietly freezes your project in place.

The deeper trap underneath all of this is the lack of sequence. When you don’t know what comes first, everything shouts for attention. You try to advance every part simultaneously and end up moving none of them meaningfully.

Clarity cuts through that noise.

A clear order of operations beats raw motivation every single time.

You don’t need to wake up inspired. You need to wake up knowing the next step... and execute it.

Standing in that smoky bathroom, what struck me most was how fast a tiny point of focus almost escalated into a full disaster. A small shift in direction changed everything.

Your course lives or dies on the same principle.

The energy you already have is enough. The expertise is already inside you. What determines whether your course exists six months from now isn’t talent or luck.

It’s where and how steadily you aim your attention.

So here’s the manifesto version of the lesson:

Finishing your course is not about doing more.
It’s about focusing fiercely on less.

Choose the next meaningful task. Lock onto it. Finish it. Repeat until the course is real.

That’s how ordinary effort becomes powerful enough to create something that exists outside your head, something students can use, buy, and benefit from.

Focused energy is dangerous in the best possible way.

Use it deliberately.

And if you want expert help keeping that beam steady, from course structure to Kajabi setup to the technical pieces that slow most creators down, you don’t have to do it alone.

Contact us to see how we support course creators with practical Kajabi help that removes friction and keeps production moving.

Because the fastest way to finish isn’t working harder.

It’s focusing smarter with the right support behind you.