Starting it is doing it!
A close friend of mine is embarking on a new adventure, one that he’s been dreaming about for a long, long time. We were chatting this morning, and after I reflected for a few minutes, I gave him a piece of advice that I wish someone had given me when I started my recent project:
It’s real! 😎
I was starting a business on a tight timeframe. It was an experiment. Something very different than I’ve ever done before. I have two kids to support. I wasn’t closing deals right away. It got dark. I got concerned.
That’s exactly when I could have used the above advice.
It’s easy to get caught up in your project being real, or in what other people think. It’s easy to be hard on yourself, to not give yourself enough credit. It’s easy to cast aspersions on your ideas, to think your time is being wasted pursuing something grand. Guess what? What’s easy isn’t usually what’s best for you.
Don’t get me wrong — it’s very important to have goals, milestones, specific things you want to achieve. That’s how the real world works. But until you’ve convinced yourself that you’re already doing it, that it’s already real, you can’t afford to beat yourself up over what you haven’t accomplished yet. If you don’t lend credence to your ideas as early as possible, you’re just betting against yourself — which means no one else is likely to bet on you either.
So if you’re “just” taking notes, or sketching ideas, or making slow progress, or taking a break, or “just” living with the project in your head — congratulations. You’re doing it. It’s real.