Start Small, Grow Big, But Most Importantly Start

I have been wanting to create my own blog for about 4 to 5 years at this point but felt like I didn't know "enough" to start it.

I am someone who sometimes tends to want to gather more than the necessary amount of information before starting something so that I can feel "prepared". I researched what is the "best" blogging platform, email distribution tools, watched countless videos on blogging, etc.

While it is helpful to gather information on topics so that you have a base fundamental knowledge of it, too much of it will just hold you back.

There is a point in time where the rate of information learned based on the time invested is drastically reduced at which point you are only learning a little bit of valuable information for hours and hours of research procrastinating.

In the world of "fake news", you are being "fake productive". Scamming yourself out of your dreams.

It may feel intimidating to go from being on the sidelines researching on the topic to actually starting whatever you set out to start, but that is where you will actually start making significant progress towards the goal you set out for yourself and start living life instead of just being a spectator on the sidelines.

Fortunately for me, I did not procrastinate on starting every project or goal that I wanted to accomplish. One project that I wanted to accomplish and actually followed through with was to launch a podcast with my brother.

Launching A Podcast

In Fall 2020, I launched a podcast called Design Test Improve with my brother. I got the idea after listening to a podcast that had two friends talk about self-improvement and other general topics.

I thought that this was something that my brother and I could do, so I told him about my idea and he agreed to start a podcast.

We took a few online courses that were short where we learned about different products and services we may need to launch our podcast then we went into action.

We purchased the items and signed up to BuzzSprout to upload and host our podcast episodes.

In the process, some of our equipment stopped working so we researched and bought better quality equipment.

We experimented on creating a process where we can go from idea to publishing an episode.

We were not consistent in recording a podcast episode every week for the first year, but lately, we have been getting into the rhythm of things and have been posting every week.

We both have learned a lot about podcasting and find it something that is fun to do so we plan on continuing this to see how the podcast brand develops.

The point of this story is we didn't have everything figured out when we launched the podcast, but we learned enough to get started.

After we started, we learned more and more. We came across obstacles and we worked to overcome them. Now that my brother and I found our rhythm we publish new episodes every Thursday and work to grow the brand.

Summary

In life, there are multiple projects/hobbies/businesses that we want to start, but hold off on it until we feel "prepared".

We may think that since we are researching the topic, we are therefore making progress towards achieving our goal of starting whatever it is we want to start.

This can be further from the truth.

Sometimes the biggest obstacle to starting something we want to start is ourselves.

We fall into the trap of running on a treadmill, putting in all this work "researching", but we are still stuck in the same place.

It is not until you step off the treadmill and start running on the trail that you actually start progressing. It may be scary since you don't know what to expect on the trail, but you will be living life and taking in the good and the bad. Learning from the experience and making the most of life.

Start small, grow big (if you want), but most importantly start.

"To author our own lives, we have to be an active agent in our lives, not a passive participant making excuses for what we are not doing. When we learn to stop needless, voluntary delay in our lives, we live more fully. It is time to make a commitment to engaging in your life, achieving your goals, and enjoying the journey. Time is too precious to waste."    - Timothy A. Pychl