first_step

The journey begins with a first step

“How am I to start my first post?”, I asked myself, elaborate Ela.

Starting a blog felt like a huge task to take on. “Am I capable of writing?”, I wondered. “Can I provide value to others?”  “Hmmm… Perhaps a bit.”, I concluded.  So, I spent some time thinking. I slept it over.

The following day I did more thinking and waited for an answer. And I slept it over. Then I did …and waited … Did … and … waited… Yes, you guessed it. … and waited. But there was no englihted answer.

“What will I do?”, I asked myself somewhat impatiently this time. “What will I do?” “What will I do?” I kept asking and asking. And then I suddenly got it. “This year is a year of producing results”, I reminded myself. I was referring to an agreement  I made with myself. So, “Simply sit down and write a post!”, I spoke in bravura staccato. In my mind, of course.

And you know what?  Surprisingly, I’ve discovered that words are coming…

Ideas, ideas, ideas

If you are anything like me, you don’t suffer from the lack of ideas. On the contrary, you have too many of them. Too many interests. Too many ideas. And perhaps too many criteria.

Obviously, being an idea generator has its great advantages too. Don’t take me wrong. You can easily provide advice in any circumstances and on any problem at hand. And you can provide all valuable advice to yourself, free of charge.  Imagine that.

But, you may get easily stuck endlessly pondering which idea to choose. I have a world-class specialization in this subject. What about you?

Of course, even the best ideas are nothing without execution. Don’t we all know that?

The situation is more complex, however. If you are anything like me, you are not only elaborate and ambitious, but also perfectionist. So, you postpone taking action until all/most important pieces of the puzzle are in place. And, ah, don’t forget, each piece needs to be thoroughly worked out.  So, it is a huge step to start my first post before I have all the knowledge on domains, hosting, WordPress, proper English, blogging, etc. Moreover, starting my post with “This is my first post and I will be writing about XYZ” or “Hurray, my blog is officially launched” seems too plain for my intricate  mind. “I want to make an impact”, I say to myself. “How can I possibly achieve that?”

The first step

The interesting point, however, is that it doesn’t matter how you start. You are going to have an interesting journey, as long as you keep going and learning how to apply the insights into methods and better-ize yourself along the path. No doubt about it. Obviously, it matters to some extent what your first post is about, but not much in a large scope of posts and years to come. The frame of reference makes all the difference.

From a local perspective, the first step matters because you decide which path to go and how to set the speed. You choose a direction of your journey and your initial emotional conditions. If it is an easy, interesting or fulfilling step, you will be excited and motivated to continue. If it is a difficult or painful step, you can sabotage yourself from taking the next one. So, your initial conditions do matter. It makes sense to choose them wisely.

From a global perspective, however, the first step doesn’t matter because your vision matters instead. As long as you are educating yourself, putting that knowledge back at work and making progress, your journey will be successful. I bet you will learn a lot from your first 20 or 100 posts. You will learn a lot from your first 20 or 100 days of the journey. And you will learn a lot from your first 20 or 100 years of life.

Embracing newbieness

Although being a newbie is not appreciated in our world of experts, there is something greatly joyful about this. Imagine, you are officially allowed to make all the mistakes and nobody expects you to have the know-how. That’s pretty cool, isn’t it?

Just know you can embrace this newbie stage with joy, exploration and fun. Even if you don’t know everything, you can decide to start somewhere and take one step at a time.

  • Even if your first step is not a good one, you can adjust and make the next one better.
  • Even if you make visible mistakes, you can correct them and let others learn from them.
  • Even if you discover you are going in a wrong direction, you can always stop, turn back and start in a new direction. And for sure you will make a speedy progress then.

Learning is fun!

Give yourself permission to make mistakes, be perfectly imperfect and enjoy the learning phase.

Your first step matters. Your first step doesn’t matter.

The choice is yours.

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Photo courtesy Fe Langdon, available under the Creative Commons license on Flickr.

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