Where Do I Start My Next Project?

My life has certainly not been a straight line of successes. I have met setbacks, obstacles and even had my plans sabotaged by others. Sometimes, I have created my own setbacks and obstacles and sabotaged myself. I have re-started my life and what I am working on repeatedly throughout my life. Some projects and businesses didn’t even get to the starting gate because I didn’t think they were even remotely possible. Sometimes it was because I didn’t think I had the resources to execute the plan. Sometimes I didn’t think I had the capabilities to reach the goal or even to get started.

Don’t wait for conditions to be just right to start your business or your next project. Based on my experience, here are a few reasons to forge ahead and move forward on your next project or business.

1. The perfect conditions never come.No matter how hard you try, you will never have enough money, enough time, or the perfect resources to get started. Microsoft and Apple were both started in garages, or, at least, that’s the myth. Whether that is true or not, they definitely didn’t begin in the headquarters they have today.
2. If you are to begin something, you must begin somewhere. Most of the time, it’s not the finish that matters, it’s getting started. The most important thing is taking the raw energy of an idea and creating something with it. This website and all of my websites began as an idea. Then I bought a domain. Then hosted the domain, learned some code, or got familiar with WordPress and updated it as much as I can. No matter, how each website got on the Internet, I had to begin with an idea, then execute that idea. You have to start with where you are and what you have available. Even if the first step is buying a book on writing web code.
3. There is nothing holding you back, but yourself. Many times when I am starting a new project, I have found myself doubting my capabilities to get something done or to change some aspect of my life. This is normal. It is your brain desperately trying to keep you safe in an unsafe world. It’s these thoughts that keep you at the dead-end job for years because the pay is consistent or because the commute is convenient. It’s the voice that says that you actually like your idiot co-workers and that staying where you are is ok. It’s this voice that originally was to protect you from danger, but these days, the greater danger may lie in staying where you are.
4. Momentum is what you want. When you start a project, you break the habit of not starting the project. You make a small step to remove complacency from your life and your project. When you do it once, it’s scary. Then you do it again and begin the project, or start showing up repeatedly during your business day.

Many times we are our own worst enemies. We sabotage ourselves into accepting mediocrity or poverty, instead of going for all the successes we can. We settle for where we are and let the media, our co-workers and managers, and our friends and family convince us that it’s ok to settle. There is no better feeling than getting to a goal and setting another more challenging goal right behind it.

But first, you have to get started.