Christi Nation, creator of Happy Productive Life.
By Christi Nation
“Motivation often comes after starting.” – James Clear
Do you ever have a hard time getting going? It’s called overcoming inertia – overcoming rest or motion. It’s hard to start or stop a project. Sitting on the couch being at rest or being in motion running errands. When I am in motion, it’s difficult to stop when it’s time to move on to the next task or to sleep.
Sometimes I get overwhelmed and I don’t know where to start. The task seems too vast to even think about starting. There are so many avenues that I could take to get the project done. That overwhelm can turn into analysis paralysis and nothing gets done.
The times I have been the most successful in completing a project is when I just start. I just start at any point in the project and the momentum of starting catapults me to being in flow. Sometimes people won’t start because they don’t know where they’re going to land. Your life will be much easier if you just start.
Until next time here are your Happiness Actions:
1. When facing a big project, don’t analyze it to death. Just start with something. Just start with one task or one aspect of the project.
2. Be proud of yourself for just starting. The trick to just starting is knowing that it doesn’t have to be perfect the first time. It gets better with practice. That’s the beauty of it – you get better at a task the more times you “just start.”
Christi Nation, President of Nation Training and Development, began writing this column in 2015 under the Happiness Actions name. To reach more people, she changed the column title because it fit better with her mission – To help others with their productivity & peace of mind. You can reach her at www.NationTD.com.
