The Hardest Part is the Start
Why a simple slogan could make all the difference in our success.
Is your life chronically hitting the snooze button?
Are you perpetually in “tomorrow” mode?
“Just Do It” is the infamous Nike slogan; a slogan the sports company has used for ages to encourage people to simply get out and start getting some physical exercise.
Whether you want to win a marathon or simply manage to walk to your mailbox, you have to start somewhere.
That’s true of any goal we have.
Starting is critical or all we have is an idea, a dream, a plan.
Most people don’t even need to be told this however it is the most crucial step towards being successful…at anything!
You can have the strongest desire to lose weight or stop a bad habit but until you act on your desire you won’t get any further.
Getting started always seems to be the hardest part.
Research shows there are many reasons we fail to act; fear, overwhelm, feeling like we have no resources, anxiety, or just having a wildly successful procrastination attitude!
Yawn. Hit the snooze button and tell ourselves we will get started “tomorrow”.
There has been no time in our history where so many people had so much knowledge and yet here we are sitting amidst a big pile of inertia as though we don’t have the tools to achieve the goals we crave.
If you are a person who truly achieves the goals you set, stop reading now.!
You obviously have created a system of success that works for you. Move on and keep doing what you are doing!
But if you are constantly struggling to finally achieve a much-wanted dream this might be your wake-up call.
Let me give you a few examples of what never taking action looks like.
Phil (not his real name) is a friend of mine who always wanted to be a coach. He was a phenomenal guy, had a lot of friends, many hobbies, worked in finances, and was just a genuinely likable guy.
Phil’s goal was to become a financial coach. In 2015 he became a certified financial planner and began working in a large investment group. Between 2015 and 2016, Phil attended many webinars and in-person workshops to learn how to create a website, get clients and market his services.
I would talk with Phil regularly and countless times encouraged Phil to begin his coaching practice. Not only was he ready but I knew he would be a sensitive and relatable coach.
By 2019, Phil had probably amassed close to 4100 hours of learning how to set up his financial coaching practice. 4100 hours! We’re talking days, weeks, months of learning.
It’s 2021 and Phil is still working for the investment firm.
I have stopped asking Phil why. I know why.
He thinks he isn’t ready and no amount of time spent learning, creating, and developing his practice will convince him he is.
Then there is Carla. Carla has been “going to end her marriage” since forever ago. She complains non-stop about how unhappy she is and how she and her spouse have nothing in common. She has done this pretty much for the past decade.
Carla has convinced herself she always has the potential to move on and is on the “waitlist”. She is waiting for someday when all the stars align and she feels like she is ready to jump ship and move on.
Like someone who cannot commit to marriage, having a child, or even losing weight, it is so much easier to try and convince yourself you will know when you are ready than to admit that you will never be.
Phil and Carla are ready but they really are only stagnant.
Ready is the stage we often allow ourselves to stay in, full of excuses and rationalization, because the hardest part is the START.
Starting is commitment. Starting is action.
Starting is also unpredictable and a bit scary and it’s that little bit of unknown that often keeps people who might otherwise be wildly successful, stuck as though they have Gorilla glue in their soul.
Is this you?
Have you taken numerous courses, attended countless events, and joined tons of groups to develop skills that you are currently sitting on?
Should you have acted on the information you processed ages ago that would have put you in a different place than you are today?
We have all done it. I did the same. For a while, I was convinced that the more I learned the better I would be but the truth is learning needs to be fluid.
We should be learning all the time but not spend all our time learning.
Many times we learn by doing. We need, as Nike says to “Just Do It”.
Think about the first time you lived on your own, cooked for yourself, did your own laundry, shopping, paying bills, “adulting”, if you would.
Did you read tons of books or attend workshops so you could learn these things? Of course not! You may have consulted a few recipe books or asked a friend for some assistance but you learned a great deal by the seat of your pants.
Granted you are not going to be a rocket science by the seat of your pants but you might be a rocket scientist in name only simply by learning how to be a rocket scientist without ever actually having a job being one.
You have to just do it.
Do is not passive. It’s not in your head. It’s in your action.
Failure to do is a failure.
We can coat procrastination with any admonition we want about how we just need more time, but really what we need is to just start.
Last week I tried a little experiment. I counted the number of free training offers in my Facebook feed alone…just in mine! There were at least 141 offers throughout the course of the week to download a free pdf, sign up for a free workshop or training or join a free challenge.
There is NOTHING wrong with signing up and getting what they have to offer. Honestly, I do free offers so I get the idea, but unless you can commit to actually taking what you learn and putting it into action, it’s a waste!
Training gets us the knowledge but that doesn’t always mean we start.
Nike says “Just Do It!” because it’s a motto to get started, but we need to take that motto and apply it to our everyday lives.
Think of all the things you want to do; travel, earn more money, forgive someone, invest in yourself, move, find a new partner, be a better parent, get a degree, and oh so much more.
What stage are you in exactly?
Have you researched the travel websites, thought about another way to earn income, written an apology, attended an Open House, made a new friend, read a parenting book, or toured a campus.
That’s great! You are in the Get Ready Stage.
In this stage, you feel hungry for more and make preparations to satisfy yourself.
Everyone starts in a Get Ready Stage but unfortunately many people move into the next stage without really gaining any momentum. They keep getting ready so much they have moved into the Hamster Stage.
What happens in this stage is a revolution of more of the same.
You go to countless Open Houses but never find that home you want, you take countless courses but never finish a degree, you rewrite your novel so many times you don’t recognize it but you never get to “the end” where you are ready to offer it to the masses.
I like to refer to this as moving into the Hamster Stage.
In the Hamster Stage, you know what you want and even start to investigate some opportunities but you don’t expand on those opportunities. You’re stuck, like that little hamster.
The Hamster Stage terminates progress because there are not follow-up steps.
You skip dessert sometimes but still haven’t lost a pound.
You attend Open Houses but don’t seek financing.
You write the apology letter but never send it.
You meet many people but really don’t grow the relationships deeper or beyond friendship.
The Hamster stage allows you to marinate in procrastination…indefinitely.
You stay hungry but you also stay safe.
Whereas in the Get Ready Stage you took some steps toward your goal, in the Hamster Stage you take those same steps again and again instead of different ones toward your ultimate destination.
Hamsters in a cage are safe. No one is threatening them. They don’t have to worry about what is going to happen because they have a predictable action plan every day; get on the wheel and go nowhere.
If you are like that hamster you probably have convinced yourself you are making headway.
You are not.
That is the worst mind sabotage of all; being convinced what you are doing is making headway when it really is just making excuses.
The Get Ready Stage at least had a step in the right direction, the Hamster Stage is just loaded with misdirection since it never really moves forward.
But we’re not hamsters. We have the freedom to satisfy our curiosity. We have the opportunity to change our venues and grow our ideas.
We can “Just Do It!”
There comes a time when nothing will ever satisfy you like actually achieving the goal.
You will be constantly searching for your purpose or stressed about being stuck until you start knocking out the goals you want to achieve.
Learning how to stop working towards ready or staying stuck in passive takes FOUR steps.
Each is an action in itself
Four steps for learning how to live your life in the Nike Stage
- Commit to a time frame.
Committing to a time frame means business. Procrastination can be a poison for becoming successful. It’s not about wanting to lose weight, get another job, start school, file for divorce or write a book. It’s about knowing a date when you want to accomplish it.
Someday is intangible. Commit to a date!
2. Take an actionable step daily and write it in a journal.
Throw out the food that tempts you. Rewrite your resume. Take a class online. Contact an attorney. If you want to write a book, schedule time daily to work on it. If you are hoping to lose weight, make planned exercise part of your daily routine. Keeping a journal allows you to visualize your progress one step at a time.
In his book, Atomic Habits, James Clear mentions the importance of changing the system to achieve success. When you are wanting to make progress, creating systematic steps that move you in that direction is vital.
Getting Ready and Staying Ready (Hamster) are not systematic steps.
3. Work with someone who will hold you accountable ( a support group, mentor, coach, minister)
Accountability is crucial. Let’s face it, accountability makes everyone more conscientious. When we know someone else wants us to succeed, our motivation is increased and we are much less likely to give up and regress.
Knowing someone expects us to reach our destination and will help us achieve that can be the helping hand necessary to get you over the obstacles.
4. Launch and Land
Whether you finally file divorce papers, interview for a new job, look for a book publisher, send the apology letter or drop down to the size you want to be you are still getting ready or “hamster-ing” in place until you reach your goal on your commitment date.
You don’t do more of the same. You don’t repeat what didn’t work.
Like Mission Control tweaks what went wrong if a launch is unsuccessful, you adjust and move ahead toward your goal getting closer until you reach it.
Then get a different goal and go through the same process.
Maybe a coach will help you lose those final pounds or maybe it’s time to accept a position and try it out. Perhaps you should try to find a new publisher or even self-publish your work. Relocate and see how you like it, you can always move again.
But launch and see where you land.
All launches are not successful the first time. That’s okay.
But when you never launch you never learn, never grow and never achieve your goal
And, make no mistake about it. Dreaming is not doing it.
Thinking about it is not doing it.
Neither is wishing, imagining, and staying stuck.
The only way to do it is to do it.
Just do it. Launch and land. Sometimes the landing is bumpy and awkward. Sometimes the landing is spot on.
You can prepare for launch constantly but you never land until you launch.
There are no stages of landing.
There are stages we go through to learn and get ready but landing is its own stage.
You can talk about it forever, learn about it forever, or actually do it and decide if it is for you.
Doing it is dropping the pounds, moving, having more money, telling someone they are forgiven, getting that degree, or divorcing.
Doing it is reaching that goal.
Doing it is the launch that gets to the landing.
Maybe you won’t stick the landing perfectly at first but you’ll be so much better at knowing what to tweak for the next launch.
There is no launching in the Get Ready or Hamster Stage.
The Launch and Land Stage is a jump-off point to see what happens.
Launching means you expect to land.
So, whether you need to achieve a small goal or need a lifestyle overhaul, if you continually hit the snooze button on your life you will never know the thrill of the launch.
You will someday run out of tomorrow.
Nike actually based their slogan on the final words of the murderer, Gary Gilmore who desperately just wanted to get his death over with after two stays of execution.
The hardest part is the start.
