We’ve all been there before… a massive goal is staring us in the face, and we can think of all the things that need to get done for it come to life.
Alright, I’ll just surf Instagram for a few minutes and then get to work.
30 minutes later…
Man, I’m kind of hungry. I’ll grab lunch and start after that.
Sit down in front of TV with lunch…
Might as well turn on the news and see what’s going wrong in the world.
We welcome procrastination at the thought of all the work that lies ahead, and we just don’t start at all…
The Resistance
I set a goal of creating a free resource recently, Get Your First Chin-Up (and beyond). But this isn’t a pitch for the program—okay, maybe a little, so I’ll add a link to the bottom of this page where you can get access. But really, I ran into a problem getting it off the ground because I had a 10-mile to-do list staring me in the face:
- Write the program—including warm-up, two workouts that could be tweaked for various skill levels over months of training, and a cool-down
- Film video tutorials for every single exercise
- Build a webpage that people could easily access to see everything they’ll need to knock out the program
- Write the directions
- Build the landing page so people could sign up
- Set up the program through auto-delivery emails for when people sign up
- Build the private Facebook group
- Create Facebook ads to let people know it exists
- …
Every time I thought of getting started I came up with all these stupid other things that needed my attention.
Only, they didn’t. At least not right away.
It was just mental resistance to getting started—the hardest thing to do.
And I’m mildly ashamed to admit, this process played out for days…
The Deal
You don’t have to do it all today… but start with opening a Word Doc, I finally told myself.
Great, we’re here, we might as well simply outline the program
Within minutes I had a solid outline.
But even bigger, I had something done. And now that that was off the table I was able to take the next step.
Then another step… and another…
And before I knew it, I knocked out all of the work in the next 3 days.
Getting Started is Simple
“I said it was simple. Not easy.” – Dan John
It’s really, really hard to start—and yet, so simple. But once you do—so long as you continually think of just doing the next logical step AND DO IT—it all comes together rather simply.
Want to get started with exercise?
Just start by putting on your workout clothes.
Looking to improve your diet?
Just start with adding a single vegetable to your next meal.
Trying to write a blog?
Open the document! ⇐ I used this today to knock out this blog 😉
Momentum
I suddenly went from a full week of no action to done in three days, simply because I started—sure—but more so because I kept moving.
Do the thing.
Then the next.
And the next.
And the one after that.
And I’ll see you at the finish line (also known as the starting line to the next step 😊)!
