Starting Something New is Scary

First ever blog post….

For someone that has always said “I hate writing” this is definitely unexpected.

So why do I do it? Because it’s time. Because I need to learn consistency and to do the hard things. To see if I can proof myself wrong and have something valuable to share. And the more I think about it the less I want to do it, so let’s just jump right into it.

The good thing about starting this is that no-one knows about it and probably nobody is going to read it anyways. In many beginnings this is the case and this is what makes the scary part less scary. It’s only you cringing on your own vision of you doing what you are doing. The thing that most often ruins the good beginning and leaves the activity or project an abandoned one is the lack of consistency. Just before some results start coming in (or in many of my cases even after) one gives up, because *insert a reason… really any reason work here, it doesn’t even need to be a good one to be realistic.

In the past years I have quite enthusiastically started a few cool project that were abandoned somewhere in the beginning or even the middle. I don’t regret most of them, because I quit when I got bored, but there are a couple that I do regret. The one I regret mostly is the one I quit, because I got scared. I was scared of the amount of work it needed to be a successfully running project, all the problems it needed to overcome seemed too much and I lost the main objective for doing it. Years later, despite being in a totally different spot, I regret ending it when I did. I know I am too vague here, but the details are not important.

The simplified process from the idea to the results

You get an idea and are excited. So you start your project. It is scary, you are a bit anxious, but you are mostly excited. Then You start working on the project. The excitement wears off in time, but the work stays and usually increases. Some problems arise, make you anxious, but you deal with them. All is well, but boredom starts creeping in. You start to forget the initial excitement. If you are consistent all goes well, the problem-solution inevitable circle is rotating fine. BUT if you're bad at consistency…. sorry, the illustration is different. No results.

“Quitting is good” some people say and their statement is quite true when it meets certain criteria. But the quitting they mean is not out of lack of consistency, so I am not going to stop on that.

So how do we build consistency? I am pretty consistent in some things and terrible at other. Like finishing this post….

Well, let’s try to finish it quickly.

How to build consistency? 1. Use some will power to start what you want to be consistent on. But tell yourself you have to do at least the bare minimum - like for yoga it is to prep yourself and sit at the ready to start the yoga session. That’s all you “must” do that time. That way it is easier to start and once on the mat the chances are you will do some yoga.

After that 2. is to do it consistently - exert a small amount of will power for the bare minimum and let the flow do the rest.

3. Do it long enough to stop thinking about starting doing it and let your habit be the initial force. Once you have done step 1. and 2. long enough for your brain to stop needing the will power to start it, it has become a habit. But the most important thing there is to NOT STOP DOING IT. Because once it becomes a habit and you relax, the chances to quit are high. So don’t quit, continue doing what you are doing and use the habit force to start.

4. There is no 4., just do what you are doing.

Well, I think that’s enough to get my point across. Don’t quit out of fear and if you want to be consistent build a habit.