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What’s Holding You Back From Starting?
What prevents most people from achieving their goals is the fact that they won’t even start. And the main reason they won’t start is because they don’t feel ready. They’re unsure how to get started, waiting for the conditions to be perfect. They are waiting to complete another course or waiting to watch their list of YouTube videos of people doing the thing that they want to do. Fast forward 1, 5 or even 10 years into the future and they are still waiting for the conditions to be perfect and have made absolutely no progress.
Why Is It So Hard to Just Start?
Your imagination of how painful it will be or how bad it might go is ALWAYS worse than actually starting and taking that first step. This is likely to be related to two things.
Fear of Past Failure
Firstly, you have had a past experience when you tried to do something, and you failed, or you embarrassed yourself. This memory has stayed with you and now every time you want to try something new you remember the hurt, the humiliation and the disappointment. So, consciously or subconsciously, you try to avoid putting yourself in these situations again.
Disrupting the Status Quo
Secondly, when you want to achieve a goal or make a lifestyle change, you have to change what you’re doing and disrupt your current status quo. Therefore, it is difficult at first but once you get past a certain point and you begin to reap the rewards, it becomes easier to keep making the necessary changes.
How can coaching help me?
Let’s look at an example of how you will never be ready and how coaching can help you get over your obstacles and get started*:
A Real Coaching Example: Meet Gloria
Gloria wants to run a half marathon. She hasn’t run in years. For months she has said to herself “I will start tomorrow” and tomorrow comes and Gloria does not go for her planned run. She has also said to herself “let me just watch a few YouTube videos or Instagram reels on how to create a running programme. Then I will create a plan and start next week”. Next week comes and Gloria feels that she hasn’t quite got the perfect plan yet and therefore delays her start date and continues to watch more videos.
Gloria comes to me for coaching and during her first session she comes to the realisation that the reason she is putting off training for a half marathon was due to an incident in High School. She had been running the last cross-country race of the season. She was making great progress despite the rain. Half-way through the race she slips and face-plants into the muddy grass right in front of her high school crush and some mean kids who made fun of her. She couldn’t continue. She quit cross-country and hasn’t run since.
Over time, Gloria and I work together to help her heal from her past experience and get started on her goal to train for a half marathon. Gloria began to realise that she was watching all these videos and making all these plans, but not actually doing the one crucial step for her goal. She hadn’t even gone for a single run.
Therefore, she said to herself “I am going to go for a run on Tuesday after my morning meeting”. With me helping her, we went through possible obstacles, how to make going for a run after her meeting an easier choice than sitting on the sofa and scrolling through social media. With my guidance, Gloria created a simple plan of the route for her run.
*Names and certain details have been changed to maintain confidentiality.
How Coaching Helps You Learn How to Get Started
Having a coach doesn’t just help you identify your obstacles and barriers. A coach holds you to account. It is one thing to say to yourself, “I’ll do it tomorrow” and then not do it. Usually, only you know that you went back on your word. When you see a coach, you go away with tasks to complete in between your sessions. Having to explain to your coach why you did not complete your tasks is much harder.
Often, you will tell yourself reasons that you know are just excuses and are not entirely accurate or true. Trying to say those same excuses to your coach just doesn’t work. Also, saying the excuses out loud to someone else makes you realise how they really are excuses and how you could have actually completed the task.
How can I start and get over my fears and excuses?
The best thing to do is to start small and don’t wait for things to be perfect before moving on. There is no perfect. If we take Gloria’s example, you could do the following:
Day 1: Get Organised
Get trainers and running gear organised. Don’t worry about whether you have the exact shoes that an Olympic medallist has. Don’t worry whether your running gear is in this season’s colours or trendy. People were running well before there were 1000s of different types of trainers and thousands of fashionable exercise gear stores.
Day 2: Spend No More Than 1 Hour Researching
Spend a maximum of 1 hour looking online at videos, websites or magazines related to training plans. There are so many plans for so many levels and every single terrain. The best thing to do is to decide on one and then try it. If it works continue. If you feel it isn’t quite right then try another one. You don’t need to look at a plan that talks about training at 10 miles when you haven’t even run 1 mile yet. Just concentrate on each run in front of you. When you find one that might work, stop looking and actually try it out.
Day 3: Go For a Run
Go for a run. It really is that simple. Then you just tweak as you go.
Can You Really Overcome Procrastination by Starting Small?
Is it really that easy to stop my procrastination and get started on my goals?
Yes — but you need to drop the perfectionist pressure. We live in an era of information overload, where everything has to be done “the right way.” That mindset creates fear — and fear leads to paralysis.
Instead, shift focus to action over perfection. Just do one small thing. Then another. That’s how you overcome procrastination and build momentum.
Final Thoughts: Get Moving, Even If You’re Not Ready
We live in a world of information overload. With everyone trying to tell us what the perfect way to do something is. That if we don’t do it perfectly, we will surely fail. Life just isn’t like that. The weight of trying to do everything perfectly or knowing every single detail can be so heavy that we can’t even move with all that weight on us.
Therefore, make it simple and just start. Do one small action and then another small action and it all builds up. Then, before you know it you have made progress, gained confidence and gained momentum towards your goal. If you would like help with getting started, book a discovery call with me and let’s get started!
Here’s the truth: you’ll never feel 100% ready — and that’s OK. Readiness comes after momentum begins, not before.
Stop waiting for perfect conditions. Take one action today. Then another tomorrow. You’ll surprise yourself with how far you’ve come in just a few weeks.
If you’re tired of procrastinating and want a structured plan that’s tailored to your needs, I can help.
Book a discovery call with me today — and let’s get you moving
References
For further reading and to verify the information provided, please consult the following reputable sources:
Mind.org.uk – Overcoming barriers to change
Psychology Today – Perfectionism Is the Enemy of Productivity
THANK YOU
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