Take it a step at a time.

When I've done my long tours, I've sometimes been tempted to think too many steps ahead and anticipate too much of the time. While that is important for key logistics (e.g. make sure you have right visas, documents) and key choices (e.g. going in the wrong seasons), there is also a lot you can work out along the way.

On both my 10 month and 12 month trips I took the first 1 month/2 month respectively in the US. This gave me a chance to work through equipment, get into general "flow" of cycle touring and then be better prepared when I was overseas for the longer part of the trip.