If You Don't Know Where to Start, Just Start

At the beginning of 2015 I made a decision to change my life. At the time I was making £150 a week in a part time job, and using almost all of that to fund a university course I wasn't enjoying. I couldn't do any of the things I wanted to in life for lack of time and money. I wanted to travel, to spend my time writing and creating, and to do something meaningful with my time. But changing the situation seemed impossible: I couldn't quit the course for fear of embarrassing myself. I wasn't qualified for a better job. 

Almost two years later, I'm still a long way from achieving my goals. I'm not financially free by any means. I haven't got complete control of my time. But I'm a great deal closer.

The reason I've not quite got where I'm going yet is that I find it very difficult to take action. Sometimes that's fear of consequences; I couldn't give up my studies because of what people might think. Other times it's uncertainty over how to do it; I couldn't start a business because I wasn't sure what to do, what field to go into, or how to get it right first time.

The one thing I've really learnt over these two years is that for things to change, you have to take that action. I've started three business projects since the beginning of 2015 with another two in planning, because I realized that thinking and planning have their limits. That point where you're absolutely certain that you've got the right idea and you're ready to go... that never comes. The only way success will ever happen is if, once you've thought as far as ideas will go, you jump in and try. It definitely won't go to plan, but that's good. That's the way you find the right answers later.

On the fear aspect, it took me until March of this year to quit my university course. That was 14 months after I realized I needed to. It took me that long to realize that the consequences I was fearing mattered far less than the cost of not taking action. Some people were disapproving when they found out I'd given it up, although far less than I was expecting. But even where it did happen, it had no impact on my life. By contrast, the positive impact was that I finally had the time and the money to really work on improving my life.

Human history is littered with examples of how trial and error is essential to ever achieving progress. The growth of science and technology is built on it. The difficulty is that the human mind just isn't geared for taking that approach to life. We seek safety and comfort, hoping the rewards will come to us by another means. 

It takes a great effort of will to break out of that mindset, and in all honesty, I still haven't. It's a lesson I had to repeat to myself just to take the plunge and write this article. I was afraid of how it would be received, what people would think and say. But I'll never find that out sitting around thinking about it. 

If you're the kind of person who needs a better life, don't spend all your time wondering about how to do it. Obviously you should think before acting, but when you reach the stage where you know action is needed, ignore the voices telling you you're not ready. You're never going to be until you take that action. That's the barrier that holds almost everyone back. Get past it and keep going, and after a lot of hard work, that's when life will begin to deliver rewards.