Do you have dreams, ideas, projects that you would love to start but for some reason, you feel stuck and can’t move forward? In my last blog, I talked about Feeling Ready and Just Starting your projects. Here’s the link if you didn’t have a chance to read it… My Secret Sauce for Success. In my own experiences and talking with my clients, I find that many of us, when starting a new venture, don’t always feel adequately prepared and therefore never start. But the best way to get your project off the ground is to just start it.

Today, I want to go a little deeper into this idea. When I start any new project, I use a trusty little mantra that gets me going. I’ve come across this motto from many thought leaders and many successful entrepreneurs, and it always brings me into inspired action. 

READY • FIRE • AIM

Yep, that’s the mantra. Ready • Aim • Fire. When I was younger, I spent so much time on the aiming. I prepared and prepared. School, internships, mentorships. Then one day I said, the heck with it. I’m ready to fire. This flip of the switch, this change in order changed my life. From career choices,  rapid advancement, traveling and starting a business, I’ve experienced what I call magic. And it came from a whole lot of faith and firing into action.

SO LET’S BREAK IT DOWN

READY

This part is great. It’s exciting. You have an idea. Heck, you may have many of them. Start to flush ’em out and decide which one to move forward with first. 

FIRE
The next step, fire, yep fire. Don’t get too caught up on the aim just yet. Sometimes you’ll find that you can aim while firing. Just start. Feel the fear and do it anyway! Take action steps. What are you waiting for, to be fear free and have everything planned? Well that might never happen. Now I’m not saying to blindly fire away. Sure you need to do some prep, you need some research. But so many times you can sit their aiming away and never actually fire. We research, we prep… we do more research and more prep. We ca get into a never-ending cycle, awaiting that guarantee that it will work. This is where we can get stuck. There comes a point where you just got to do it. Not everything is going to work anyway. So don’t over analyze this part. Just keep moving. See what works and what doesn’t.

PROCRASTINATION

Endless aiming often times is a form of procrastination. Procrastination stops you from doing the things you want to do with your life. In dealing with procrastination, it is important to know that it is born out of fear. It keeps you “safely” stuck. It’s your negative mind in action. It holds you there, telling you that taking that first bold step is too dangerous, too risky. “Oh No, I Can’t Do This, I’m Not Ready.” “I Could Fail” or the old standby, “I Just Don’t Have The Time.” These are just a few examples of the negative mind at play. Yet it’s the very action of just moving forward that has the potential for you to not only survive, but to thrive!

AIM

So now you fired. Yay for you! As you push the ball down the field, here’s where you direct the course of action and direct the aim. It’s during this point that you can learn what is working while you build. Now take your plan, and break it down to small action steps. Make it real. Do something everyday. Get calculated about it. Write lists, map out tasks in your calendar. Even if you’re taking little steps everyday. Action gets the ball rolling and you start to collect momentum. Just keep the ball moving. Believe me this works. I practice this successfully in my own life, I coach it to my clients, I write about it and I will keep reaffirming it. 

MY EXPERIENCE

I remember back in the days when I was a radio executive. My job was to sell commercials to potential advertisers. I was so scared when I first started. I was new and not “seasoned” yet. I was so afraid to go on meetings and reach out to clients. Asking business owner to trust me and invest thousands of dollars on advertising was absolutely frightening. I was paralyzed with fear. Then one of my colleagues said something to me that really hit home. She said, “What’s the worse that could happen. They throw you out. Who cares just laugh and leave and go back again the next week.”  And you know I did just that! I actually did get thrown out of places a few times. Well not so much thrown out, but told ” I’m too busy to talk to you right now. Or no, I’m not interested.” Each time I smiled and I went back the next week with a new approach. And believe it or not some of those clients actually became my best costumers. Who knew. All I had to do was face that worst fear head-on. And it wasn’t so scary. So you see sometimes you just got to go forward and face your fears. Even fall down. Get back up and turn it into a positive. 

“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” ~Henry David Thoreau 

Peace and Blessings,

Jewels Bertrand

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