Is Getting Started Really The Hardest Part?
By Anna Johnson on December 17th, 2009You may believe that when it comes to embarking on a mammoth task, project or mission – such as a new Internet marketing business – the hardest part is getting started.
I agree that getting started can be a big challenge. Indeed, it may be the most formidable roadblock for many – perhaps most – people.
For others, however, finishing something is actually more difficult than starting it. If you agree with this, you probably find it relatively easy to start numerous different projects… but since you’re so busy starting more and more things, it’s virtually impossible for you to see any one of these projects through to the end!
It’s likely that the person who can’t take the final (or middle!) step is just as besieged by doubts or fears – such as the fear of failure – as is the individual who finds it hard to take the first step.
Then there’s a third category of people. If you’re like these people, it’s not getting started, or finishing what you started, that’s the biggest hurdle.
It’s starting over…
In particular, it’s starting over after you’ve managed to start something, seen it through to the end… and FAILED!
You see, one nice thing about starting something new is that you have no precedent for failure. When you’ve already ‘failed’, on the other hand, you not only have to start over, but you have to do so in the knowledge that you couldn’t do it the first time. In this case, that insidious little voice in your head that says “you can’t do it” has some evidence to back it up!
Thankfully, you don’t have to look at this way.
In fact, the stories of the most successful people in the world – in business, sport, politics, the arts, etc – are stories of people who bounced back from numerous failures of one kind or another. And that shouldn’t be surprising. After all, how do you find out what works… unless you’re able to dismiss what doesn’t work?
In other words, all the failures experienced by these men and women were simply approaches or strategies that didn’t work. As they discovered strategies that didn’t work, these people were able to discover the strategy or strategies that DID work.
It’s actually quite logical. Which means that if we can shake off the emotional baggage of ‘failure’ and see it for what it really is – an approach or strategy that didn’t work – we can overcome the difficulty of starting over… and achieve our goals.
