1st January, 1st step, 1st blog

Writing my first blog and how I’m already hyped about my 2nd, 3rd & 4th!

I did it!

This is my first blog.

It’s also about writing my first blog and why it’s taken me years to write it.

And, hopefully, it will encourage the handful of people that may read this to take the first step towards one of their own goals too.

We all get a kick out of making progress. Achieving results, large or small, is both satisfying and encouraging.

The big problem, however, is a large percentage of us suffer from chronic procrastination. I know that I experience it to some degree on most days in both my personal and professional life.

Taking the step to write this article for example has taken me way longer than it should have. As a C.E.O. that is obsessed with all things business related, I’ve been deliberating over launching my own blog about startups, scaleups and self-development for years. Not only that, I have known 100% that writing regularly about my passion would be empowering, productive, and would bring a ton of value when it comes to my own self-development. It’s a no brainer for me.

So, why has it taken so long for me to actually do it?

Overthinking; worrying about what people might think; don’t have enough time; what shall I call it; am I qualified; what if no one reads it; can I even write? These feeble yet common excuses are conjured up in our minds, yet in most cases these are unjustified thoughts and prevent us from making progress. We are also creatures of habit and for most of us, taking a step outside of our comfort zone is daunting and uncomfortable.

Before we know it we have convinced ourselves that the cons are outweighing the pros and then days, months and in my case, even years go by while our new venture is stuck on the back burner.

The solution; just start. Just take that first step!

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are. — Chauncey Depew

Whether it’s making that first phone call to a potential client, flicking on YouTube to follow your first virtual training session, or opening a fresh Google Doc to write the first sentence of your first blog post. Just take that first step.

Generally speaking, we all know deep down what it is we need to do — I’m sure you will have thought about it for long enough. So, think about what the smallest and simplest first step would be, take that tiny bit of action, and just start.

Take this article as my example. The simplest step was to forget about my website’s colour scheme, forget about what people might think, forget about whether I think my writing is any good (or not), and just open up my laptop and write the first sentence. Actually, the rest has followed way easier than I thought. I am currently 25 minutes in and I’m already hyped about my 2nd, 3rd and 4th posts. I made the first step, progress has been made and it’s already having a positive knock-on effect. I should have done it years ago!

I have no doubts that at some point in the future I will look back on this article and will cringe at how terrible my writing is, or how my grammar is all out of whack. There’s a good chance there will be a few typos in there somewhere too.

But, we all have to start somewhere and the hardest part, as simple as this actually turned out to be, is making that first step.

So, if you have a project, hobby, or new venture that you want to pursue, why not take my advice and simply take that first and small step. Like, today, now, this evening? Why not? Put just one hour of your time aside and make a start.

You should try it, you may surprise yourself ;)