Achieving Your Goals: How to Take the First Step

My friend Julia finally pulled the trigger on a big passion project that she has wanted to start for years. Now, everyone in her life knows how amazing she would be at this, and we are all standing in the background cheering at her wonderful project, but she herself had a lot of doubt and honestly, did not even know where to start! 

Of course, life happens - we have children, we get busy at work, and again, life. But there comes a point where you need to just move forward and take that first step even when you don’t feel ready. Hint 1: you rarely feel ready. 

Getting started on something new can also be paralyzing, especially if this is your dream and failure feels devastating. Often we can visualize the final product, but not the steps that will take us there. It’s easier to never start….and never fail, then to start and fail. Hint 2: failure (or a deviation from the original plan) is part of the process.

I started my blog in 2015, but not after a lot of thinking and planning…...and just wondering how the heck to even go through all of the technical steps. Hint 3: you learn by doing.

At some point I could either sit around and analyze forever or just get started.

Start with a small win

My small win with starting The Pharmacist’s Guide in the fall of 2015 was registering for a blog platform. But even that was not as simple as it seems. There were several platforms to choose from. Which was best? I could only google this question so much - at some point I had to take the plunge. 

Take baby steps

I like to compare this to the training of a marathon runner. Training is a series of short and long runs with some intervals mixed in between. The marathon runner keeps putting in the work for months and months before the race. On race day, they can’t always anticipate the weather conditions, any injuries, or other obstacles but they show up. 

After I registered for a blog platform, what next? I probably should start writing. About what? I had lots of ideas but even those were hard to narrow down until I started actually taking action and doing the work. 

Enlist help

You are not meant to be on this journey alone. Whether this means you have supportive people in your life, you are outsourcing some parts of the business, or you are delegating work that you don’t enjoy (hello housework!) so that you have more time to do what you love. More often than not, it takes a team to build something great. 

Edit, edit, edit

That blog platform I initially registered for? I switched to another hosting site two years later. That marathon runner? The wind and rain were rough, but they learned and anticipated for the next race. Building something is a lot of trial and error. That IS part of the process. 

When writing a book, authors always say that the real book and the real magic is in the editing process. Authors develop an elaborate outline, start researching for their book, and then usually end up taking a lot of different paths once they start putting the words on the page.

On that note, years ago, I read  a couple of books written by people I was interested in --- and I’m not going to lie, I thought the books were pretty awful. Book one barely grabbed me at all and I only made it through three chapters. Book two had terrible grammar but I read the entire thing because I loved the personality and content. 

Fast forward ten years and that first author has written ten books and established herself as an expert in her field. The second has written another book and is selling and creating businesses and living her best life.

The point is, they started. Even larger than life personalities with resources, book deals, and a perceived support system still don’t always start out with amazing first products. Now I’m not saying that your first product will not be amazing, there is a good chance it will - I’m just saying don’t let the fear of not having an amazing first product keep you from starting.