The past few weeks have been insane for me. Tax season is in full swing. I have a tax court trial going on, with deadlines right in the middle of the tax return mayhem. On top of work stuff, I’ve been trying to update my blog, plan a wedding, and find a home Ben and I can agree on to purchase (the latter being much harder than I thought). Obviously all of these ventures have produced a great amount of stress in my life. But the tornado of stuff has reminded me of a very important lesson that I’ve learned when accomplishing my goals: get started.
Beginning work on a project, whether it’s tackling your finances, starting a new hobby, or just conquering a fear, can be the most beneficial thing you can do in order to complete it. It sounds intuitive that you need to get started on a project before you can finish, but this lesson is particularly hard for those of you, who like me, are planners by nature. I meticulously try to map every scenario before I make a decision and take action. This behavior has prevented me from getting started when I really should have.
Last year Ben and my friends had to force me to get started on this blog when I wanted to plan more. I finally started writing without a template, no idea how to post, and no concept of how to use social media. I eventually resolved those issues and have had the learning experience of a lifetime with my writing, my relationship, and connecting with many people I wouldn’t have before. I’ve had to learn to find that balance of planning and action, and really ask the question, “why am I putting this off?” A financial planning client of mine also ran into this problem of inaction. He felt like he needed to have all of his documents in perfect order, chart where he thought his failures were, and have the perfect start date. It took me saying multiple times, “let’s set a date,” and him finally saying “okay, let’s do this” for him to start taking action and for the progress to begin. Now he’s doing things he never thought even possible before (like making amazing spreadsheets) under his own initiative. Getting started gives you the motivation and pure inertia needed to tackle what you want to accomplish. And of course, with so much going on you may find that you have a stressful couple of weeks or months. But that activity will help you prioritize those things you want to do and prevent you from saying “I really should….”. So next time you are trying to tackle a goal, hobby, or project and your find yourself putting it off another day, just get started. There’s no time like the present.
