Getting Started and executing on your ideas— all it takes is one positive action.
A short motivational article on taking action, how you can do this easily and quickly and how you can execute ideas.
There is no purpose if you have an idea but never seek to make that idea a reality — Daniel Barnes
I used to pride myself on ideas. I must have thought that I was some intellectual whose ideas gave me a sense of purpose.
But I had no purpose. Ideas are nothing. If you are sat on a billion pound idea but the person next door executes on the same idea — well she/he is rich, you stay the same but your idea is no longer yours and you cannot do shit with it now. They executed on the idea — this is now theirs. So either sit there and watch this happen or make a start.
If you had made just one positive step forward with your idea then you could have been sitting on a billion, a million, a hundred thousand — you know what I am saying. You will never get there by thinking about it.
It is all well and good having ideas but not acting on your ideas is criminal. I hear excuses all the time about not executing ideas and they are normally to do with not having enough time to execute them. A fair point to most. As I sit here writing at 0530 on five hours sleep after tending to my baby, cramming in writing before I go walk the dog, get showered and do the day job — I can appreciate that. But it takes sacrifice — that is what I am doing. I am sarificing an extra hour in bed so that I can write daily, so that it might take me somewhere and so that I have time in the mornings to work on my business Beardster. *I had a crazy early start the follow day to writing this paragraph. I did not manage to write as I had a physical activity day at work that started a 7, finished at half 5 and covered 20km in that day on foot and a small amount on a MTB. So I didn’t write but that was poor so I now have to make up for that. This means I need to write 1000 words today. So when you cannot do what you need or want to do, then you need to sacrifice some time elsewhere and make sure you get it done. *.
I think most people are willing to call on time as an excuse for not getting stuff done but in reality it isn’t time. It is that hour long session of FIFA they played, the extra hour in bed, the drinking with friends until late, the going out with friends or the binge session of Narcos on Netflix. These things take up your time — how about you take one action to drop one of these and instead start executing your idea. Prioritise the actions, the activities or the creative processes that make a positive difference.
How to Execute ideas
For over a year I dreamt of starting up my own Beard Care business but sat on it, even after doing all the initial research of suppliers and costs etc. This has cost me as if I started in May 2016 when I was going to then the market would have been far less saturated but I was content playing Xbox, watching TV and chilling out in my spare time from work.
So, if you have a dream of setting up your own business selling any product or service just do it. Go create a website — it is easy to do, just jump on Wordpress.org, set up your page for free, and you now have a place where your business exists. Feel free to buy a domain, they are so cheap and cost less than a few days worth of coffee.
Want to write a book, an article or anything? I love that. But are you reading and writing every day of your life? If not then what are you doing? You need to be reading to improve your craft and you need to be writing every day of your life to execute on it. So, instead of getting some more sleep in the morning get up and write whatever comes into your head or write something that you have planned the previous day. Every night before bed make sure you have time to read. There you go, you are now executing on this idea and 500 words each day of the year equals 182500 which could easily be a book that is around 400 pages long or that is a load of articles that you can post on your website or medium or on facebook.
Are you seeing how small actions can allow you to execute?
The opportunities that we have now are unparalleled and we have never been so fortunate in the existence of human beings. So go take advantage of them now — that is what I am attempting here and this article, despite being on the third day of writing has only taken around 45 mins of writing time. If this helps make you feel just an ounce of motivation then that makes me happy and makes the time writing this worthwhlile.
Let’s go back to the iea of selling a product or service as this is what every business is. Once you have a site you now need customers. So get your hustle on, get on social media and hustle for it. I have just started to see sales come through to my Beard Care company from DM’ing on Instagram, just like Gary Vaynerchuk DRock suggest — it is powerful.
Taking the small actions, multiple times, day in day out will soon form a habit. So long as your enjoy the repetition, the grind, the planning and the execution of the ideas you have then eventually you are going to make progress. You will hopefully make it to where you want to go. And it all starts with one positive action and executing on any one your ideas.
