Getting Started

Getting started is always the hardest part about any task. Whether it’s going to class or getting up in the morning to go to work, the initial barrier of getting started will often times be our biggest enemy in finishing through with our accomplishments. It’s not that we lack the resources to get the job done, it’s just that the mere THOUGHT of having to go through with something we find unpleasant is a rather difficult barrier to work around. On top of that, throw in an overall lack of motivation for the task at hand, and it’s certainly easy to see why so many people procrastinate.

The biggest key to getting started with any task however, is a conscious understanding of getting started in the first place.

What?!

What that means is that as long as we have a conscious understanding of why we’re procrastinating and taking so long to get things moving, then we can generally overcome our issues of getting started (or lack thereof) very easily. It’s when we don’t understand why we’re being so resistive to a task, assuming that it’s merely happening because we don’t like the task itself, that our procrastination is allowed to continue.

When you look at a task at hand, whether it’s something minor like doing a bit of lawn work, or going to work for the day, when you feel that tug of resistance, it’s important to ask yourself: why?

Getting started is very dependent upon that, and without knowing WHY you’re being so resistive to something, it’s generally very difficult to overcome that resistance in the first place. If you want to make an analogy of it, think of the resistance you’re facing as your enemy, and in knowing your enemy, you can more easily defeat it. However, when you’re unable to understand your enemy, or even WHY it’s your enemy, then how can you possibly defeat it in a reliable manner? Sure you may get lucky here and there, but you definitely won’t have the confidence to win every battle.

When faced head-on with a task that we don’t particularly like, getting started sort of represents the pinnacle of your attack, the area where you’re going to require the most energy. Once you’ve rolled through this barrier though, you find that there’s really very little to hold you back. You may even learn that the actual task isn’t all that difficult; rather you’ve just been putting it off because it’s not particularly enjoyable.

So how do we overcome this though? Is knowing and being consciously aware enough to surmount our fear of getting started?

It’s certainly a good start, and it’s probably the best tool you can possess to overcome this issue. Once you KNOW that you’re only resistant to getting started, not of the actual task at hand, then it makes overcoming that task much easier. That being said, we still need to understand that resistance a little bit better until we can be totally comfortable with ourselves.

One of the reasons we tend to get resistive towards certain things is because of what they represent. One of these representations is the fact that once these tasks are started, you have to consciously accept that it’s now your responsibility to see them through. Take something simple like cutting the lawn. A chore that while many people don’t mind, an equal amount of people seem to despise. Regardless, unless you have a huge amount of land, there really isn’t anything difficult to cutting the lawn, as the only sacrifice you have to make is your time. Yet it’s for that exact same reason that so many people resist it so fervently.

Once you’ve gotten started with something, you have to commit your time to it.

Time that you could be doing something much more enjoyable. Hmmm, I could either spend the next hour doing maintenance on my car, or watching my favorite television show. Believe me, it’s not rocket science as to why people decide to put things off until the last minute. Nobody wants to get stuck doing a task that’s dull, uninspiring, or downright un-enjoyable; yet if it’s something that has to be done, it’s much easier to accomplish it right away. Of course, all these negative attributes make getting started that much harder, and it gives the illusion of the task being worse than it really is.

But that's exactly why getting started early is so important. The sooner you can finish something up, the sooner you can feel better knowing that it’s done and over with. You’ve probably noticed on multiple occasions just how hard it is to enjoy your time knowing that you have a particularly nasty chore or assignment waiting for you at the end of the day. Any kind of “fun” activity you try and do seems to lose its luster, as you feel guilty that you’re not doing something more productive. It becomes very difficult to enjoy your day with such a thing looming in the path, knowing that it’s only a matter of time before you come face to face with whatever it is you’re required to do. Before long, instead of getting started at a time that’s convenient and easy for you, you’re forced to begin at a time that’d dictated towards you by surrounding factors. Usually some form of deadline you’re expected to meet, thus causing you to have to drop whatever it is that you’re doing and begin at the last minute.

Of course, now it’s even worse as you have nothing to look forward to after the completion of your task. Sure, you may still have time to do something afterwards, but had you finished whatever it is that you had to do right away, you would have had the entire day to look forward to and enjoy. Now that you’re forced to start at the last minute, it’s anyone’s guess as to how much time you’ll have left to yourself after the completion of your task.

If you STILL have trouble getting started with something, then try this: allocate 2 hours each morning (or whenever you have free time) to working on something you don’t particularly enjoy or want to do. Even if you don’t finish it, if you can just put in 2 hours, you’ll be well on your way to finishing up. Of course, depending on the task at hand, that 2 hours may be plenty of time to finish up whatever it is you need to do, and even if it’s not, you’ll at least have scratched the surface there. Instead of viewing the task as one large problem, focus your effort on just getting started, and take the rest as it comes at you. I can guarantee you that once you’ve begun you’ll find that it’s actually much easier to follow through than you probably anticipated, and upon completion, not having to deal with it for the rest of the day is well worth the price of the effort.

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