Photo by Norlando Pobre (Creative Commons)
Your palms sweat and stomach churns. You mentally tell yourself, “It’s alright, I will definitely start tomorrow.”
Be it writing a book, starting a business or just trying something new, starting is very hard.
These seven tips will help you take the most important step in any project: start.
1. You are never ready. You never will be. It’s easy to rationalize and say that you need more training, but in reality you might just be making excuses. Start anyways and you’ll be able to find things that need improvement, instead of hypothetical excuses that stop you from pursuing your dreams.
2. No one is an expert. Sure, there are always others further along in their journey, but they still make mistakes and have to learn from those mistakes, just like you. At one point, I was intimidated by other bloggers like Jeremy Statton and Jon Acuff. Now I am friends with them and view them as peers.
3. Almost everything takes longer than you want it to. Accept this and get to work anyways. Patience will most likely be a struggle for you. That’s alright. Instead of spending time worrying about why you haven’t achieved something, get back to work.
4. Success needs to be defined. Define what you are going after. Otherwise, it will not be achievable no matter how well you do. If you want to sell 10,000 books say so. If you want to be self-employed, set a goal for your first year’s profit for an actual number like $40,000.
5. Try not to compare yourself to others. I know it’s really hard not to, but you might be in the beginning phase and you are comparing your beginning phase to someone else’s middle (or even ending). If you find this impossible not to do, meet with others you can learn from and get guidance from them. That is the smart way to handle this as opposed to worrying or stressing about it. Form relationships and friendships, so you can help each other out.
6. Social media can easily steal all of your time. It’s great for networking and building relationships, but remember you need to focus on the work at hand. The work is the reason to be using social media, not the other way around.
7. You are in sales and/or marketing no matter what you do. You have to market yourself to land any job. You have to sell a good or service or you will not get any income. You are even marketing yourself when you recruit others to join you as you start a project. Keep this in mind as you move forward.
What is a tip that you have about starting?
