GO...GET SET...ON YOUR MARK!
You know how in races, they say “On your mark! Get Set…GO!” In life, I feel like we should do the opposite. Go, and as you’re going, you get set, and then you hit your mark. Do you have an idea, a business plan, a book, a dream, a song, anything that you’ve wanted to do but it’s in it’s infant stages, and you just keep putting it off? For weeks, months, years!? You think about it and say, “I should really do this,” but for some reason, you can’t get yourself to get started? When it comes to your idea, plan, business venture, goal, dream, etc…where are you according to the scale below?
Curious. Thinking about it but not quite sure. Excited. Want to Get Started. Passionate. Absolutely Committed.
If you are not absolutely committed, then you should forget about it, and you don’t need to read any further. You say you want to lose 10 pounds? You need to be committed. You say you want to write a book? You need to be committed. You say you want to get into law school? You need to be committed. Commitment is step one. Once you are committed, get going! Just start it. Forget about all of the noise and chatter in your mind that holds you back. Forget about the lack of resources you have or the lack of time you can dedicate to it. Just start. If you have commitment, you can overcome any resistance.
Start before you are ready. If you wait until the perfect conditions, you will be waiting forever. Perfection is the food that fuels resistance. If everything has to be perfect before you start, then you’ll continue to resist and you will go nowhere. It doesn’t have to be perfect when you start… Get your ideas down fast and quickly before you forget them, and then tweak it later. My smart phone also serves me as an idea journal. Because ideas have their own sense of logic and being, they like to pop in our heads at no particular time and when we least expect them. Always write it down or record it in your phone because you can easily forget after those creative juices flow.
Begin with the end in mind. Figure out where you want to go, and then work backwards from there. Every time I write a blog post, I know what I want to communicate as I’m going. I start with the end goal, and as I’m writing, I pause and ask myself “what is this about?” just as a reminder to stay on course. Discipline yourself to boil down your story/new business plan/philosophy/ enterprise down to a single page. Beginning, middle, end. Then fill in the gaps. Get started on the work to establish habit and rhythm. This way you’ll gain momentum and your “I should” can turn into “I did.”
Fight the resistance; the resistance to be perfect; the resistance telling you you’re crazy, the resistance saying you’re not good enough, resistance telling you it’ll never work. Tell the negative committee that meets in your head to shut the heck up! Stop thinking and start moving. If you take time to think, that resistance will talk you out of it. Never forget that effort is attractive. So GO!! Get set and hit your mark. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Blessings and love,
Marti Reed