"Done Is Better Than Perfect" – On The Importance of Just Starting – Renaisearch – Andrew Lueth
Summary
Whatever it may be that you are waiting for to just magically “happen” out of nowhere for you to just be where you want to be or to finally feel ready to do whatever it is that you want to do… its not gonna happen. unless you make it happen. And you are not gonna make it happen unless you just start.
Unfortunately, as you will know, this is the hardest part. Starting always feels kind of weird and clumsy. But thats totally normal. It even makes sense if you think about it. Its like a wheel or a big rock, that you are trying to roll around. At first you will have to put some effort into getting it from just standing still to moving slightly. At this point the rock will not be moving smoothly or elegantly, it will likely bump around a bit. But once you get the rock moving just a
bit, its way easier and almost naturally to get it to move fast and smoothly.
Its just the same with your everyday habits or the goals you are trying to accomplish. Bringing up the effort to move from the resting phase of your old habits or your comfort zone to the part where things are just beginning to move will definitely suck and feel akward or clumsy. But just as in the metaphor of the rock, once things are actually in motion, staying in motion and moving forward will feel the most natural and be quite easy.
So, what am I trying to get across here?
Once you actually realize that its really quite natural and normal for the starting-part to be the hardest and most akward phase of every process, it will be much easier for you to just accept it as a normal and necessary part of the whole process, that is inevitable for you to move forward to the easier phase of rolling and building momentum. The fact that getting started is hard, has nothing to do with your own inability or with you “not being ready” – it is a natural and normal part of the process, that everyone goes through, no matter how talented or gifted they are!
Well, it is not by accident that the first episode of this podcast begins with the topic of just starting. For a matter of fact, I am taking a word out of my book here and just starting this podcast, which I have been waiting to feel “ready” for for the last year or more probably, just waiting for the perfect moment to start. It turns out, the perfect moment to start, is the moment you decide to start.
It is a decision! A decision to turn whatever potential or vision thats waiting for YOU, waiting in YOU, to be expressed through YOU. And to bring it into reality!
With this first Episode I will set a positive example and hopefully inpsire you to start your own thing – whatever that may be!
I want to end this episode today with a small challenge for you:
After reading this text, I want you to get yourself something to write, sit down for just a moment and take a few real deep breaths.
Take yourself a minute or two and feel into your gut, into your heart – what it is that you know you should start but have been putting off for some time now. Once you know what that certain thing is, make a committment, a promise to yourself:
A promise that in the next 24 hours you will make the first step towards your goal, however small that step may be.
The first step is the hardest, but also the most important, because without it there are no second or third steps. I also encourage you, after doing that first step, to make it a commitment to yourself that for the next month you will spend 1 Hour a day investing in
the next steps that need to follow. After consistently investing 1 Hour a day for a month you will definitely have come a long way and besides that, you will probably know if whatever you were doing is actually as fullfilling to you as thought it may be… I mean, imagine you fantasize about being a writer for 30 years of your life and after finally starting and beginning to write, you quickly realize that you actually hate writing. Wfhat a waste of your time and energy to
falsely fantasize about something you thought would bring you fulfillment.
Alright I´m starting to drift off here… but the point remains:
Get yourself something to write, site down, take some time and breath deeply.
Then make a promise to yourself to start in the next 24 hours and keep going for a month for 1 hour a day.
Make that a writting commitment, sign it with your name and hang it somewhere for you to frequently remind you!
Now, I hope you enjoyed this first episode!
This was me starting – now is your turn!
To end this episode, I will leave you with one of my favorite poems:
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute: What you can do, or dream you can, begin it; Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Only engage and then the mind grows heated; Begin and then the work will be completed.
John Anster
Renaisearch 