Sometimes the hardest part is getting started.
It doesn’t matter what you’re talking about. Starting a new website, a new business, starting to exercise, starting to eat better…all of them are hard to start.
You start thinking things like, “What should I do first?” “What’s the most important thing to say here?” “What’s the best time of day to exercise?” and tons of other questions, and do you know what happens?
NOTHING.
Absolutely nothing happens.
You keep putting it off until you’re sure that what you’re doing is right. You want it to be perfect, and until you’re sure that it will be, you do nothing.
Let’s take this website for example. I looked it up and saw that I installed WordPress about a month ago.
How many posts do I have up on the site at the moment? ONE. That’s it.
When I decided to start this site, I created a long list of things I wanted to talk about. I have plenty of ideas.
So it’s not that I don’t know what I want to post.
The issue?
I wanted to make sure that I talked about all of the “important stuff” about Small Wins and what they are and why they’re so important first. I wanted to make sure that I started the site off right. And I wanted to make sure that it’s perfect. So I kept putting it off, saying that I’ll do it when I know exactly what I want to say and how I want to arrange it.
…and in turn I’ve done nothing.
Guess what? That content can be written any time.
It doesn’t have to be done first. In fact, when I’m done, if I really want, I can put an earlier publishing date so people will think that it was posted first. Or I can put the content on a “page” instead of a “post” and put a link to it from the front page.
There are many things I can do down the line once I get the content up, or get the categories the way that I want them to be.
Either way, it doesn’t matter. If it’s holding me up, I need to forget about it for now and continue.
And how do I do that?
By starting to write the posts that I wanted to when I started this blog.
Starting as if this website already has multiple posts on it, and I’m adding more helpful content.
I should be writing about things that can help make your life better, and they only take a few minutes at a time.
I need to write the posts that will be helpful to people who come to my site, and not worry about the “introduction” type posts that I want to write. Let’s face it, if I keep waiting until I know exactly what I want to do first, I’ll never start.
So I need to pretend that this site has been up for a few months already, and post the normal things I would post.
That’s it!
It can work for you too. It doesn’t matter what we’re talking about. You can do this with almost anything.
Do you want to exercise, but aren’t sure where to start? Pretend you’ve been doing it for a month already. Today is just another day. What exercise routine should you do today? Pick one, it doesn’t matter. You can do a different one next time. When do you have free time to exercise? Do it then. Again, you can always do it at a different time next time.
Did you decide to start a new business? Great, do something. It doesn’t matter what. Just get started. Take a step. You can always go back and change something if you want later on.
Do you want to write a book, but don’t know where to start? You don’t have to start with the introduction. You can do that later. Write one the chapters that you’re interested in and that you want to write about. You will eventually get to all of it…but start where you want to. Use your motivation to your advantage and first write the part of the book that gets you excited about it! Even if it’s a chapter somewhere in the middle. That doesn’t matter. After this you’ll have a chapter done, and can move on to the next one. Before you know it, the whole book will be done.
did you want to start posting on social media? You don’t need to start with a long introduction about who you are and why you’re there. Start talking about whatever it is you wanted to talk about in the first place! Post that great deal that you found, or that tip that you thought would be helpful.
Are you waiting to start your better eating habits until you can create a weekly meal plan, but can’t get yourself to create that first week? Start in the middle of the week. Decide what you’re going to eat on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Pretend that you’ve been doing this for a while already. It’ll be a whole lot easier to come up with ideas for those three days. When you’re ready to start the next week, you’ll have already been doing it for a few days and it won’t seem as hard.
Here’s one more example. Is your house completely unorganized and you don’t know where to start…so you haven’t? Pretend that you’ve been doing this for a few weeks already and have already organized a few things. Pick one small section and organize/clean that.
We put too much pressure on ourselves when we’re just getting started. If you haven’t started because you’re not sure of something, don’t second guess yourself. Pretend that you’ve been doing this (whatever THIS is) for a while now. Today is another day…one of many. It takes all of the pressure off and makes it a lot easier to get things done.
You can always change things if you want later on, or add a beginning. Don’t worry that once you start something you’re stuck doing it that way forever. That’s not the case. You can always make changes later. The important part is to start.
If you can’t get started…don’t take that as a sign that you shouldn’t be doing it. Take it as a sign that you don’t know where to start…and start in the middle! You’ll start doing whatever it is that you wanted to be doing in the first place…and won’t have to wait anymore.
