How to start what you want? 5 advice everyone must know.

Starting your own business. Having your own blog. Creating a Youtube Channel. Learning how to speak a foreign language. Being in shape… 

Our wish list of accomplishments can be really long and it takes lots of efforts to achieve them.

To start what you want, you must have the right tools and mindset. Which is why I selected 5 essential advice to have in mind if you want to start a new project:

N°1: Do your Research 

Lot of us forget that our mind’s health is as important as the body’s. 

We are always thinking about going to the gym or eating healthy food. But we often forget to pay attention to how we feed our brain.

You must remember that your education cannot stop after school or at work. You always need to keep learning. Especially, if you aim to start what you want. 

The web is awesome. Most of the answers we are looking for are there. 

Who should start something without making any prior research? Only a fool. I wouldn’t start a blog without googling how I can create one. 

So, you might think the idea of “doing your research” is obvious. But how many people I have heard complaining about why they are not achieving what they want.

Just because they did not take the time to feed their brain enough.

Here is a story:

One of my friends had this desire to look more muscular. So he started going to a gym nearby. 

Exercising a lot. Training intensively and lifting more and more weights. 

At the end of the month, he was exhausted and said he couldn’t notice any real results. 

So, he gave up. 

Where did he go wrong? 

He didn’t plan anything. You build muscles with three factors: training, food and sleep.

The food he was eating, he didn’t care about. 

The rest he needed to have his muscles fibers rebuilt, he didn’t take it. 

Plus, he saw all those well shaped bodies at the gym and directly thought he had to exercise as much as he can to get the same results. 

Without understanding that those people knew what they were doing. Those other gym goers had carefully researched what goals they wanted to achieve and how they were going to do it.

They knew rest time and a healthy diet account as much as training in the process of increasing muscle mass. 

My friend did not know, he was too focused on the result and made a simple conclusion that training at the gym equals more muscles that he didn’t succeed in his goal.

Tom Clancy said, ““Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.” So, let’s keep on learning. We never know which knowledge or skills we might need to achieve what we want. 

N°2: Stop Think and Act

Once you are done with your research about the project, activity or business you want to start.

Start to act. 

Don’t wait for the perfect season to launch your idea as it will never come. The perfect time does not exist and I know this well.

If like me, you are a perfectionist. In other words, you have high standards about your work.

Starting to act is one of our biggest challenges. 

We are so bad when this moment comes. Always waiting for the perfect conditions to do it. It is just crazy how we overthink so much and never get things done. 

Just leading ourselves to procrastination. Putting things for the future. And the future doesn’t come.

How to overcome procrastination?

This could be a whole article itself. 

But remind yourself that the perfect idea is not something reachable. 

Focus on what we call the MVP: minimum viable product.

The MVP is your “good enough” product. 

So, once I have got something “good enough”. I go with it and try. Because “good enough” is already “good”.

It took me a while to launch this blog. Even though I had written lots of drafts: I was scared that my English writing skills were not good enough.

That people were not going to be interested in what I am writing about. That I was not really adding any value and that it was not good enough to be shown.

So, I asked myself: “why can’t I just start posting what I wrote?” 

I mean I wanted to do it. But always delaying.

The answer was something that we face when we try something new: we are scared of what people would think of our creation; of us.

Many missed the opportunities in front of them just because they were scared of being judged. We can’t let that happen to you.

N°3: Stop Caring about what Other People think!

One of the biggest challenges that most face when they want to start something new is the fear of what people will think of it.

Above all, when our credibility and authority are not established yet.

Even the people close to you would judge what you are doing in a bad way. Instead of pushing you to succeed, they will hold you down. 

Though it is the toughest to deal with, especially when you need their support and not their mockery. 

You have to avoid those situations and keep going. 

Otherwise, nothing great will happen to you. And like them, you’ll stay stuck in a boring and routinely life that they are trying to impose on every individual they know. 

When I started I had no idea if people wanted to read what I was writing. That fear of potential rejection was holding me back. 

The truth is that we all need to start somewhere. Worst case, people will try to put you down. 

Not directly of course, but it’s easy to feel it in their questions: “So, don’t you think you’re wasting your time with blogging? Do you really think people will read something from someone they don’t know about?” 

The type of questions, which only aims to steal a quick victory. 

Your goal is to focus on the people who have no harmful intent. Those who want to help more than despise. Those who are here for positive and constructive criticism. 

Once we step up to our own fears, we give others the power to do the same. 

What we think about what other people think is often wrong. Most of the time, they do not care. 

People are busy with their own lives. 

Plus, there will always be haters. So, let’s just build our confidence up and care about the people who are worthy of our time. 

At the end of the day, we are trying something new for ourselves. Not for everyone else. 

N°4: Stay Consistent

There are 2 phases to deal with in the process of starting something new. These phases can also be found in the culture shock principle.

Phase 1: The Honeymoon

Everything is exciting and full of possibilities! 

We think that we are going to accomplish great things and we are already thinking of the potential outcome if our project becomes successful.

How foolish we are. 

Our ability to stay consistent will determine our success. As much as starting what we want can be easy, giving up can be as well.

Phase 2: The Negotiation (also called the Frustration Phase)

The honeymoon phase is over, we are in the second phase. 

The initial excitement wears off and even the simplest task can be frustrating. It is the most difficult phase where most people abandon.

Why? Because there is a boundary between what we want and what we enjoy. 

I want to be in shape so I go to the gym. I enjoy writing so I started a blog. Both activities can encounter phases where we fall track off. 

There are active demands, in other words, they are tasks requiring conscious efforts. It needs a certain willpower, but willpower is a limited resource.

How do we go through this phase? 

We shift those active demands into passive ones: by creating habits. A routine created around a particular new activity, will transform the things to do into easy things to do. 

Everyday you write and all the words compiled during 365 days would create an amazing blog that no one has ever written.

I know it is easier said than done. But by staying consistent, you can truly get the results you are seeking for. 

Even if it is hard to keep habits. But there is no other way:

How do you want to be in shape without practicing sport regularly?

How do you want to have a professional blog without writing often?

We are not machines and we can’t be 100% focused all the time. Sometimes life events happen and this would hurt our momentum. 

So here is my last advice. 

N°5: Take Breaks and Seek For Exterior Advice

Lots of studies are already explaining the benefits of taking breaks.

It helps you be more productive and creative. 

Even if you have an urgent deadline, it is advisable to take a break when you consider you need it.

I applied this a lot. When I have this little fog that comes in my mind I know I am dealing with decision fatigue. 

I would take a break, then I would magically – although scientifically proved – come back with fresh ideas and with a better mood. 

And if I still feel stuck I would use coffee as a stimulator or best case, meditation.

I am clearly not a yoga person or the perfect young professional who wants to improve his productivity by any means. 

But honestly, I saw real benefits when practicing mindfulness. 

If new ideas are still not coming. I look around. I call some close friends. Tell them about what I am doing. And listening as well, I am not a jerk. And sometimes they will be the ones to trigger the idea I was looking for. 

That is how I made lots of decisions, like the name of this blog: johnfisalbon.com.

You can think I just used my own name and that’s it. But I actually brainstormed for hours about which names could fit the best. Not finding anything I liked. 

Until a friend told me why don’t you just use your name like other bloggers do? Indeed, why didn’t I think of that… 

Great ideas can come from anywhere, and sometimes not from you. 

So here are my last questions to you if you want to start what you want.

What will you regret more? 

Starting what we want is a long process and there is no one-size model. I used those tips in many projects. It helped me to get great results. 

Achieving something you started because you wanted to, is one of the best feelings you can have and I really hope you will experience that.

With this blog, I start what I want. 

And whatever happens, I’ll have no regrets about having tried.

Now what about you, what do you think you’ll regret more: the time spent to start something new or the fact that you didn’t even try.

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