🏅 1-2-3 Method To Finding Your Idea

Welcome to The Sunday Starter, a weekly email of tools and techniques, that will help navigate the journey to just get started and keep moving forward.

Given that this is the 1st edition, I’ll share a quick story of how we got here.

Here’s the thing…I never started much of anything.

Sure, I plugged along and completed some things and have a few accolades to show for it but I never felt I really started.

What do I mean? I never embraced who I was and what I really wanted to do with my life. I let the wind blow me in certain directions and I took the advice and opinions of others too much into account. I was mostly lost, confused, complacent, and lazy.

Something changed a dozen years ago. Maybe it was the change that most men go through as they are rounding the bag at 30, I’m not sure, but all I can say is that I started to awaken to a new way of living and I started to have a fire in my belly that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I continued to pour fuel on the fire and I’m grateful for being in the spot I am today and sharing this new newsletter with you.

Just Get Started is my life’s mission because I’ve uncovered one hard fact…

I know the feeling when we start to believe in ourselves and build confidence in areas we once lacked. We develop a sense of meaning that is important to a fulfilling life.

Through the Just Get Started Podcast, Books, Blogging, Coaching, and otherwise I try to help navigate people to get started in all aspects of life.

This newsletter is one of those avenues I want to explore and share with the world. I am grateful to have you reading it!

…Now, without further ado, please welcome the 1st edition of The Sunday Starter.

I never understood the importance of starting until very recently.

I would overthink ideas and feel like I had to have them near perfect before putting any effort into moving them forward. They lived up in my head.

I’ve discovered that’s the worst place for them to stay.

We must be willing to pour our ideas out onto the table, let them squirm around, and see how they take form.

We must pick something and be willing to go test it out and see what we find.

Forgot about wasting a ton of time thinking through the idea.

If we’re going to waste time, let’s waste it on the actual execution of the idea.

I’m going to show you a simple way to choose the idea and start executing below.

Let’s get started!

I love Kevin Kelly’s thoughts about thinking of your idea as a “prototype”.

Who knows where it’ll go in months or years but you’ll never know if you don’t start with an idea and tinker with it for a bit. Below is a 2-min clip of when Kevin joined the Just Get Started Podcast and shared his thoughts on picking an idea.

So that’s what we’re going to do today.

Let’s pick an idea and roll with it.

Forget next year.

Let’s focus on right now.

This 1-2-3 Method To Starting exercise can be a super simple way for us to get everything out of our heads, analyze it briefly, and then make a decision.

I’ve found the decision we are most excited about jumps out from the paper relatively easy so this exercise can help if you are stuck in your own head about what you should do.

Step 1: Choose 1 idea

Let’s pick one idea of the many that we might be considering. We can’t do everything at once so let’s start with one.

Here’s what I’d have you do:

1. Set a 5-minute timer and write out all the things you want to do. It could be things that excite you or you're curious about. This can be a list for a brand new project or maybe you already have a business but are not sure where to take things next.

2. After the timer is up. Look over your list and circle the 2 that jump out at you the most.

3. Then, make a decision.

Starting is all about decision-making. We could’ve easily just circled one from above but this little “built-in test” is helpful to be decisive with what you want to do.

Chances are both ideas you circled are appealing and interesting in their own right. It doesn’t mean you can’t do them both.

But which one are you starting with?

Step 2: Create 2 options to start the idea with

When we have an idea there can be a dozen different variables that we can do with it. As an example, if we start a garden we can start inside in small pots, build a box outback, grow veggies and fruit, or just grow flowers.

The options are endless. Let’s narrow them down.

Similar to choosing your idea in the prior section, let’s write down all of the different things we can do.

1. Set that 5-minute timer again and create a list. You may already have an option in mind so that makes it easier but going through this exercise helps your creative side offer up new things you might not have considered. You may not use these options now but they could be something you build to down the road.

2. Pick 2 potential options from the list. This helps you keep an open mind as you are flushing out things further and it could provide you with flexibility as you begin to build the foundation of your idea

Step 3: Find 3 different resources to help create the idea

Resources can help you move in the right direction. It doesn’t matter what they are but using them to spark inspiration or provide knowledge can be helpful as you map out the early beginnings of your idea.

Start with Google or go to YouTube and search for your idea. This is about gathering a few thought pieces to spark the start.

This is not for us to use to procrastinate from starting.

We don’t need to take a long course or read a book for a couple of weeks. Those may end up becoming important to build your knowledge of a given subject but that information isn’t necessary to get going.

Don’t let those distract you from getting started.

Once you’ve worked through Steps 1, 2, and 3 go do the thing. Find time in your schedule to get it moving forward and realize that nothing is going to happen overnight.

It’s all so simple.

Pick an idea, develop a general plan, and then start.

We don’t need to overthink it. We need to act.

Action creates new emotions, tension, and a magnitude of possibility.

Just Get Started…

Here’s My Challenge:

Over the next 2 weeks, I want you to carve out a minimum of 4-hours (do more if you’d like) to work on this idea.

Schedule it right now.

Pull up your calendar and block off the time. You may want to break these up into (4) 30-min chunks or separate out another way.

Whatever works best for your schedule. That time is non-negotiable. It doesn’t get missed.

Starting can be hard especially if it’s a project that is way outside our comfort zone.

But once we start, it gets a slight bit easier. Then when we do it the next day we start to build more confidence and before long we’ve created a positive pattern for our life.

I think this quote is a great way to end this week’s newsletter and something that’ll be “bulletin board” material when you need it.

What’s Coming Next…

Next week, we’re going to discuss how we can prioritize the most important parts of our lives so that we can become more intentional about them.

🙏 Thank You For Supporting This Newsletter

❓What did you think? I’d love feedback in order to continue to make this a superb resource for everyone. It can be positive or negative. Nothing is off limits so reply to this email and I’d love to hear from you.

✅ When you complete the challenge, I’d love to hear what idea you chose and how you thought about scheduling the time to make it a reality. Reply directly to this email and please share.

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