Do you think that you are stuck at some point in your life and business no matter how much you take action? But you are still stuck somewhere.
There are 7.888 billion people on this planet earth out of which millions think to start their thing which they have aspired to do for a long period of time.
It can be anything ranging from traveling the world while capturing the moments, living the life of a digital nomad to becoming something more than just a 9 to 5er.
These are the people who just think, sigh and again sigh.
They basically don’t have the ability to take that action which could lead them closer to their goals or dreams. They are just living their lives in their comfort zones which is basically dangerous for them in the long run.
However, out of those millions there are thousands of people who actually take that step of ACTION. They overpower that zone of just thinking. And enters the realm of people with actions.
But there are a lot of things which make these beginners all the time beginners. Why? Because they get stuck in the initial chapters of taking the action.
Here are some things I am gonna discuss with you which will be helpful in understanding the ways how a certain mindset keeps beginners stuck.
1. Overthinking:
Believe me, this one thing is the root cause for many problems in our lives and businesses and whatever we want to do or doing. Why? Because before taking a certain action we think about that a lot.
We build the castles of our dreams through just overthinking. The process of overthinking itself seems really nice and fulfilling when we are thinking and making things up in our imagination.
But once you stop thinking and come into the reality which is totally different from the world you have created then the cycle of anxiety and overwhelming thoughts begin. And this leads to more thinking and overwhelming the mind.
I have this quote in my mind which i read somewhere that:
Overthinking: the art of creating new problems out of ones that never existed in the first place.
Anonymous
At the beginning of anything like changing your life or building a business, the cycle of overthinking starts. You have to break this vicious cycle in order to become free of your overwhelming thoughts and move into the zone of high focus.
This is how I came up with the vicious cycle of overthinking because I used to overthink things and not take action. Whether it’s about my life, work or business.
Let’s Break down this cycle step by step:
- Stimulus: Starting a new business or making significant life changes often comes with various stimuli, such as new ideas, challenges, or opportunities. These stimuli can trigger overthinking when we are not certain about them.
- Over-analysis: when individuals start a new venture or try to make changes in life, they may feel the need to over-analyze every detail. They think all the time and constantly question their decisions, strategies, and the potential outcomes.
- Reality Contrast: When the individuals after overthinking for prolonged periods of time come back to reality and they realize that they haven’t taken any action but just built the castles of their dreams. They seem to not like what their life actually is due to overthinking.
- Emotional Distress: These cumulative effects of over-analysis and the gap between expectations and reality can result in emotional distress. People start feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or even discouraged, which can be detrimental to their motivation and mental well being.
As a beginner you have to build a mindset of doing the action instead of thinking about it and then thinking more about it. Once the idea to do something comes in your mind, the next step is to write down and execute that idea. Because the results speak for the action.
To break this cycle and make it more conducive to positive change or business success, individuals can employ several strategies:
- Mindfulness: Recognize when you are entering the overthinking cycle and consciously redirect your focus to the present moment. Over-analysis needs to be prohibited in the beginning. However, necessary analysis of the things must be done.
- Set Realistic expectations: Understand that not everything will go as planned, and setbacks are a natural part of any venture. Set realistic expectations for yourself and your business, and be prepared to adapt to the changing circumstances.
- Action-oriented approach: Instead of constantly analyzing and thinking, take action and learn from the experience. Make decisions based on the best information available at the time and adjust your strategy as needed.
- Seek Guidance and support: Don’t hesitate to reach out to mentors, advisors, or a support network. Discussing your thoughts and concerns with others can provide valuable perspective and reassurance. Just talk to those who you consider will appreciate you and push you towards your work.
- Time Management: Allocate specific time for planning and analysis, and then shift your focus to execution. Effective time management can prevent you from getting stuck in the overthinking phase.
- Self- Care: Prioritize self-care practices such as exercise, relaxation techniques, and sufficient sleep to manage emotional distress and maintain your mental well-being.
Breaking the overthinking cycle is crucial for your personal and professional growth. By recognizing and addressing these tendencies, you can navigate life changes and entrepreneurial endeavors with greater resilience and success. Woah!
Action Step: Whenever you feel that you are going into a phase of over-analyzing the idea, just count to 5 seconds and move to do the work on that idea.
2. Automation, No Work:
Well, you must be thinking now that automation makes life easy. How is it possible that automation can keep the beginner’s mind stuck?
Here you can see the quote of Walter Lippmann:
“You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative.”
Walter Lippmann
Through this quote I want you to focus on the word initiative. Walter says that you cannot utilize the best machine which is designed for automation without your own initiative.
You have to work first in order to make the automation work for you otherwise there’s no use of automation.
Now let me tell you about my experience. I am a content creator and after 3 years of imposter syndrome, lots of fears and what not, I finally took the step to do some work because I don’t want to depend on one income stream at this level of my life. I want to gain multiple streams of income.
But before doing the actual work I used to get myself stuck in the loop of finding the best automation tool which can make my life easier in the content creation process.
However, here you need to focus on the thing that I was just researching and finding the best tools but not doing the actual work which was to CREATE THE CONTENT.
Here’s another quote by Evan Esar:
So, this is where the majority of the beginners find themselves stuck. Basically, researching automation before doing the actual work makes us feel like we are doing something for our goals and making our life easier.
But tell me one thing: how can we utilize that machine or automation tool without putting our work out. It’s no use to us until or unless we are at that stage of life where we are doing the real work and we need automation for managing our multiple tasks on multiple platforms.
Action Step: Stop researching on the automation tools and start working on the real thing which you want to do.
3. Delegation before making systems:
Delegation is a process which is needed because one person cannot do everything. Right?
However, when a person who is just starting out his business or something in his life, should he focus on the work in order to create a proper system or should he go directly to delegation?
Well, in my opinion, if you are just starting with minimum resources like money. You need to first create a system. By system, I mean a process of doing a task.
For example, when in content creation, you have to create a piece of content, say a post. Fo that you must know a process which is:
- Research
- Write what you want to post
- Add references to make your point more strong
- Add visuals like photos or videos
- Proofread that draft of post
- Upload on the website or platform
- Format the post in a way it is SEO friendly and readable
- Schedule/Publish the post
But tell me you don’t know the task and the process, how you’ll make the other person do the task. Here, I’d like to mention Ankur Warikoo:
He says that before you delegate the task, make a framework or a system to do a certain task. Once you think you have made the framework and now you can delegate this to others and move onto the next one. Just delegate and move on to compose the new one.
So, before doing the actual work and making a system, never think of delegating the task to others. However, there’s an exception and that is if you have this much money that you can easily delegate the work to an agency, then go for it.
Action Step: Build the framework or a system to do a complete task and once it’s done delegate to others. But for now focus on the work.
4. Scaling before putting effort:
Ajit Nawalkha says that:
“You don’t want to scale too fast. Success is not determined by the pace of success. It is determined by the work you have put in, into building your foundations.”
Ajit Nawalkha
Most of the time when you are going to start a business just a little bit after you’ll start having thoughts to scale the business. And remember you haven’t put the actual effort which is needed to build the deep foundations for the business.
It’s human nature that we struggle with our thoughts of getting more and more everyday. This is the reason that makes us want more early on even though we haven’t put the required efforts.
Moreover, while building a business in the real world you don’t want to grow your business only, you need to build your personal fundations, your mental health, your values and your mindset.
Action Step: Focus on building the business foundations and also build yourself while going on this path. Scale your business once you actually have put your efforts in it.
Also Read: How to start all over again? 8 simple steps for when you desperately need a change
5. Looking for easiest ways:
When you start working on a business or a new thing in your life, your mind isn’t ready to do difficult things. That’s why you’ll be always looking for the easiest way to do the tasks.
And believe me, sometimes in order to find an easy way to do something, you’ll not focus on actually doing that thing.
That’s why Theodore Rubin said,
Life is not the name of shortcuts or easy ways. It’s a long path full of bumpy rides. So, enjoy it and make yourself at ease with difficult things. Because Happiness lies outside the comfort zone.
Action Step: Make your habit of doing difficult things first and do them so much, in so many ways that you find the easiest way in your journey to do the things. And that difficult way is going to be your easiest way ultimately.
6. Boasting before doing:
When a person starts something new, he starts bragging and boasting about it. Why? Because he wants reassurance from others. And in doing so, he starts getting responses which are usually judgey or negative. And this will not gonna help him in any way.
You’ll find people around you who will be saying bigger things that they will do this and they will do that. But after some months or even years you’ll see nothing but bragging and boasting is still there with them. Run from them. Ha!
When you start something, start in silence. Work on it to make it bigger enough that people can see themselves that you have achieved something.
Staying silent is beneficial because if you fail in your project, you haven’t lost your confidence or dignity. Which you could lose if you have bragged and then failed.
Action Step: Don’t talk about your idea until you execute and work on it diligently. Let your work make noise for itself.
7. No clear goals:
Another big reason which keeps the mindset of beginners stuck is having no clear goals. In life and business (these are two important things, I think) having clear goals is so important to move forward.
Les Brown’s words of wisdom for goals are:
Always have goals in written form which include yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly and daily goals. Yearly goals and quarterly goals give you a bigger picture of things you want to achieve.
However, Monthly and weekly goals give you an explicit picture of what you need to do to achieve the bigger goals. So, utilize them wisely.
Action Step: Write your all types of goals in a notebook/diary or online management tool and start working to achieve them.
8. Consuming Content without Intention:
In this digital era, where every type of content is just a click away, you scroll and mindlessly consume the content. The attention span has decreased to a level that we can’t focus on one thing for a longer period of time.
The big reason is that every creator and brand is competing in social media for your ATTENTION. That means your attention is the most precious thing for the people out there.
The American Singer and songwriter Solána Imani Rowe has something to say for intention:
“I don’t have any control over what actually happens except for that I have full control over my will for myself, my intention, and why I’m there. That’s all that matters.”
Solána Imani Rowe
So, be careful about your attention and be mindful about the content consumption. Because you’ll become what you consume eventually.
Make a list of creators or social media pages whose content benefits you and you want to consume their content. After you read, watch or listen to some piece of content, write it. Because that way you’ll be aware of what you consume.
Moreover, In business when you are learning a new skill just be attentive about it and learn with intention and then implement to see the results.
Action Step: Start noticing your behaviors and interests about the content consumption. Pen down your thoughts because it’s important to consume with intention.
9. Living in an Unrealistic World:
The main reason why 99% of people don’t get to achieve what they want to do in their lives is because of living in an unrealistic world. The world in which they are heroes. The universe in which everybody has to like them.
The galaxy in which everything is according to their ways. This is not the reality but a fantasy world which they have created in their minds with a lot of expectations.
Most beginners suffer because they live in an unrealistic imagined reality. They think the world owes them big time. But things are not that way, darling.
Everybody wants to be happy in their life. Right? So, in order to achieve that happiness this quote of Jodi Picoult will be enough for you to get out of your imagined world.
If you want to aim for happiness and success in your life, first of all make yourself comfortable with the real world challenges.
Acknowledge that you are living in the imagined reality and that needs to be shattered so that you can do whatever you want to do.
Action Step: Start having zero expectations from people around you including your friends, family. And focus on learning about the ways the real world works.
10. Constant Comfort Zone:
If you have come this far reading my blog post, I appreciate you, Pal.
Well, for this point to be made I wanna start with the quote whose source is Pinterest btw.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you are capable of until you step out of your comfort zone either by choice or by force.”
Anonymous
Let’s break this quote into two parts: One on the basis of leaving comfort zone by choice and second leaving comfort zone by force.
- Leaving Comfort Zone by Choice: If you are not struggling mentally or financially but you still want to do something which has an impact on not just your life but also others. Well, that means you want to leave your comfort zone with your own will or choice.
- Leaving Comfort Zone by Force: If you are facing a financial or mental crisis, and you want to better your life with every passing day. And you have no choice but to force yourself out of your comfort zone to achieve that. Then you have to take that hard pill and work on yourself.
Whether you leave your comfort zone by choice or by force, one thing is guaranteed; Personal Growth.
Action Step: Identify your life situation, if you are in the contant form of comfort and not taking risks. Start doing it now!
Wrapping Up:
You can find a lot of reasons for not doing a thing but only one reason is enough to go forward. Find that one reason and go for it. The most important thing at this moment is to change your mindset when you start doing something. Because motivation is not a reason behind things to work it’s the discipline and showing up daily. So, no matter what, show up daily and do a little task but do it.
Aqsa Chaudhary signing off! I’ll meet you next week.
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