The Key to Getting Started

Have you ever wanted to start something? Your own blog, business, adventure, or trip? That dream vacation you’ve always been dreaming about… and still is… just a dream?

There are reasons, of course there are! Commitments. Things I need to be doing. Should take care of. All valid. All legitimate. And all very real to each and every one of us.

I remember a few years back, I was young, reckless, optimistic, with money lying around. A dangerous combination. And being the 65-year-old trapped in a 25-year-old’s body that I was, I said: “I want a business!” What a practical suggestion!

Within that year, I was a franchisee of a small food cart, and a sizable Pizza kiosk. I didn’t have a business before. I was starting from zero! Nevermind the fact that they don’t put everything you need to know to run a business in an operations manual.

I even did all the legal requirements and paperwork myself! I sure did learn a lot! And looking back, I asked myself, “How did I even manage to start not one, but TWO businesses?”

 

–from W. H. Murray in The Scottish Himalaya Expedition, 1951:

“ A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:

Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”

What I’ve realized, is that there really is just one thing we need to do to get started:

 

“Get Started”

 

Was that too much for you? Let’s put it another way:

 

“Go For It”

 

And that’s it. There are a ton of articles and resources on what to consider, what to learn, how to prepare, for anything and everything you might want to do. There are lists of top 10 things whatever they may be. And they all boil down to: “Get Started.”

You may know everything there is to know about that Majestic Island in the Philippines you want to get to, but if you don’t book your ticket to the place, then that knowledge is just knowledge my friend. The same way that your dream of a paradise vacation remains a dream.

“Get Started”

I didn’t know everything there was to know about setting up a business, let alone all the hassle, hard work, and heartache it would entail.

You’ve just got to soldier on and go through it, and just learn, and figure stuff along the way.

NASA didn’t have everything they needed to send a man to the moon when they launched their first satellite. They got started, and figured things out along the way.

A lot like life, actually.

Get Started. Figure things out along the way.

Get Started.