Getting in the habit of starting

So I'm sitting here staring out the window as my new friend hurricane Sandy pummels the east coast with flooding, squalls (I had to look up what that was when the weather channel told me they were heading my way), and all kinds of other nifty things.  Since the outside world has seemed to stop for now, I decided to write about something that has been on my mind a lot lately.  So for today's post, I'll be talking about starting.

In the last few months, I have found myself with what feels like infinite amounts of free time on my hands.  After years and years of absolutely no free time, it has been a nice change of pace to just sit and relax from time to time.  Relaxing is great and all, but I have discovered I waste tremendous amounts of time.  I seriously spend hours sometimes getting excited about ideas I have but have a tendency to just write them down and never act on them.  This has to stop.

Instead of sitting around waiting for the world to hand over opportunities to me, I have made the decision that from now on I need to get in the habit of creating my own opportunities.  I am constantly thinking of these big ideas and unfortunately I have yet to follow through on putting them in to action.  One thing is this blog you're currently reading.  I have seriously been telling myself for about 6 months I was going to start this and when I finally did it was a great feeling to just do it.

I think a big reason that so many of us never get in this habit is because we're afraid to fail.  I know I was about this blog and still am about some of my other projects I have in mind.  But facing the fear of failure isn't all that bad when you just do it.  Who cares if you fail?  I mean really, who cares?  At least you tried.  It may be a drag, but you'll get over it and learn from the experience.  In my case, I have virtually nothing to lose and everything to gain so there is really no excuse for not pursuing these projects.

The most successful people constantly start.  Seth Godin (whose blog can be found here) reminds me of this every single time I read one of his 15 books, ebooks, or listen to him speak on TED.  He and many of the people he writes about have created their own careers from just constantly starting.

Every successful group, organization, school, or whatever started from an idea.  All it takes is someone with the creativity, motivation, and passion to get it off the ground.  We all have what it takes, but we just need to make the decision to get started.  That's it.  Not every idea will be a total success, but there's no way of knowing unless you just start and see what happens.

We've all got what it takes and if you're reading this from the east coast, take advantage of the time you've got while this storm passes to get started.  The world is just waiting for the next great idea.  Maybe it's yours.  You'll never know unless you try.

Don't put it off until tomorrow or next week.  Start now!  Go, go, go!

-Seth