Start now; tomorrow may be too late.
People often tell me that even though they’re excited about the ‘newness’ of their business or project, they don’t know where to start. Fortunately, finishers and winners have one thing in common. They’ve developed the habit of doing what unsuccessful people aren’t willing to do; they make a start. Likewise, fools start in many directions.
You want more revenue, but you don’t want more work. You’d like to be slim and trim, but you’re unwilling to eat correctly and exercise daily.
The bookends of success are commitment and discipline. Without obligation, you’ll never start; without consistency and discipline, you’ll never finish. Unfortunately, getting started is the most challenging part because we have many reasons not to.
- Make your start small. Take the first step. You can’t take step two until you’ve taken step one. Taking the first step to prioritise will focus you in the right direction. But don’t expect to understand all that’s required immediately. “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going”. Hebrews 11:8
- Start with yourself. If you want others to respond to you differently, give them different attitudes and actions, and attract their attention by being a recognised and reliable finisher.
- Get started early. Someone said, “Noah didn’t wait for his ship to come in; he built one”. Hard work results from accumulating the easy things you didn’t do when you should have. The truth is, the work doesn’t seem so hard once you stop putting it off.
- Start now. What are you waiting for, until you get married, have kids, the kids leave home, or you retire and die? If you wait too long, you’ll only have one regret: you didn’t start now.
Seek help from the FAQ Support Knowledge Base.
Establishing an advisory board is a great way to access external expertise and can push you and your business to the next level. Even a one-person company can seek a more formal process for engaging good people to help.
Start by creating a list of experienced people you could bring to the table to help you grow your business. The list should include people who can fill skill gaps. Then, start small, get benefits, and expand the numbers on your advisory board over time.
The problem with complaining about your system is that it hasn’t been able to hear you; only people can. So, rely on your external sources to help you stretch beyond your comfort zone, push past your limitations, stop your procrastination and achieve what you haven’t yet been able to do on your own.
Quotable quotes.
“We are all creatures of habit. However, we can replace bad actions with good ones. Start by trading in the amateur’s actions with the successful”. Peter Sergeant
“Just because your future looks bleak and your pockets have become empty because of adversity doesn’t mean you can’t become action-oriented, revitalise your to-do list and start to turn things around.” Peter Sergeant