The First Step

The first step.

Everything journey begins with the first step.

Every new adventure requires that first step.

Every time I’m on the edge of doing something awesome, I always have to take the first step.

Here’s the thing:

I hate the first step.

Why?

IT’S SO DANG HARD TO TAKE.

Every time I’m about to do something I know will better me I have this problem.  I’ve outlined my plan, I know what I need to do and I’m about to take the first step and then…I stall.  In the moments leading up to the first step, it’s as if I’ve suddenly become more creative than I’ve ever been before.  I come up with excuses left and right that don’t even make sense..  I argue constantly with myself to keep me from doing something great.  This happens on a daily occurrence.  Every time I go out for a run, I have little conversation with myself.  It usually looks something like this:

Stupid Joel [SJ] – Joel, no way you can go running right now, you just ate, you’ll get a cramp in your side.  Do you want to run with a cramp the whole time?

Less Stupid Joel [LSJ] – That was literaly three hours ago, I’ll be fine

[SJ] – 3 hours ago?  What time is it? It’s awfully late, you shouldnt’ run when it gets this late.  It’s going to get dark.

[LSJ] – It’s only 8, it’s still light out, I’ll be fine.

[SJ] – 8? EIGHT? Do you know how many good shows are on at 8?  Think about how much you love LOST

[LSJ] – I hate LOST.  It’s the dumbest show on television.

[SJ] – You do now, but what happens when you go running at night, it’s dark and you GET lost?  Aren’t you going to wish you would have watched LOST to pick up strategies for what to do when you’re actually lost?

[LSJ] – What does that have to do with anything?

[SJ] – Want to see something that doesn’t have anything to do with anything? Want to see a kangaroo fight a human?

[LSJ] – No that sounds absolutely…well now that you mention it…it actually sounds kinda awesome [It is a pretty funny video]

[SJ] – YES! Good call

See what I have to put up with?

I go through this all the time.  It’s not that I’m confused about what I have to do.  I know what I need to do and the steps I need to do to get the results I want.  It’s just that first step.  It sucks.

It always sucks.

But you know what always happens?

Once I take the first step.  Once I put myself in motion, I just go.  The excuses linger but once I’m started, I know I’m already committed to finishing and they fade to the back of my mind.  After a while, the first steps get easier.  The arguments are still there, but they’re shorter and the more times I get used to taking that first step, the easier it gets.

The first step is the deciding factor.  90% of people with a killer idea get caught up talking themselves out of it, that they never even take the first step & give their dream a chance. [I literally have no source for this statistic, I’ve just seen it in my own life & lives around me]

That’s where I’m at with this blog.  I struggled for a long time about the content, design, format, and God knows what else.  I picked JD Roth’s & Chris Guillebeau’s brain at the Chicago Meetup a few weeks back about all the technicalities of starting a blog & how to get the details down, but you know what?  The more we talked, the more we talked, the more I realized that I was just using my ignorance of the topics as excuses NOT to blog.  Sure, it’s great to know what platform is the best & having a great design is awesome, but if you don’t have content, then you don’t have anything.  That’s what makes a blog.  The action of creating content.  That’s the first step.  The other stuff will come.  Whatever you’re looking to do, focus on what that first step is and do it. You do that and you’ve won half the battle.

The first step is always the hardest part.  Tomorrow I’m officially “launching the blog.”  I’ve told a few people about it and sent out a few tweets to test the waters, but I haven’t technically “launched” it.  But tomorrow, it’s on.  Full speed ahead. No looking back.

This is the first step.  Let’s go…

[What’s The First Step You Need To Take But Are Constantly Avoiding?]