Prologue

Just Getting Started — How every journey has a beginning, how taking that first step can be extremely overwhelming (and terrifying) and how the only way to achieve momentum in anything we do is to get going, take consistent action and then learn and course-correct along the way.

Don’t get so caught up on the opinions of others, public humiliation, failure or the crippling fear of uncertainty.

If your heart desires it, your gut feels it and you’ve filled your head with enough foundational knowledge to believe its achievement is, in fact, a possibility (regardless of whether you have any doubt in your own ability to get it done), then that is sufficient reason to find time in your life to squeeze it in, no matter how small your initial dedication to the cause may be.

Just get started and adopt the attitude that you’re merely getting started.

Tell yourself “I’m just getting started — no pressure to be the best that ever was”; the point is not to convince others that we are the expert.”

One does not simply fall into anything knowing everything.

In fact, show your vulnerability and express curiosity at every opportunity (a trait that will serve you well into the future) — and again, tell yourself “I’m just getting started. This is only the beginning. #WatchThisSpace”.

This is the attitude of a champion!

Hold on to the belief that, “although I am at Level Zero in my journey at the moment, this is just the beginning of all the greatness that is yet to come and nothing (read: nothing) is going to get in my way (especially not my arch nemesis… myself).”

I’ve come to realise that we also have this very weird fear that, if we take the path of most resistance then, not only do we risk pain, suffering, failure and the regret that we took a shot at the expense of something else we could have put our time, money and effort into, but because we don’t know everything there is to know before going in, each step forward in one direction could actually be a step backwards in the reality of our entire lives.

Even if we were meant for this path and know it to be true, we become paralysed by the thought that we will do it so wrong, go through so much effort, just to be plummeted all the way back to the beginning because of some monumental fuck-up we made when we were just starting out.

It’s ridiculous, and we need only speak our fears out loud to realise just how absurd everything holding us back actually is.

The problem is that this jaded mentality leads to indecision and procrastination (being our inability to do or our lack of committing to anything at all) which is often disguised as perfectionism (being the lie that we tell ourselves where we reason that we aren’t taking action because we ‘aren’t ready yet’ or ‘something isn’t perfect yet’) and still, we fail to see the irony in that not making a decision is a decision in and of itself and is, in fact, the only decision wherein the decay of our very existence is all but guaranteed.

This is because we do nothing of significance and, therefore, learn nothing of significance; electing to rather slip into something just a little more natural, like our cramped and claustrophobic comfort zone (which we hate just by the way), yet it’s so familiar and certain we don’t even notice that we’ve created a breeding ground for fear to spread its roots.

But because it releases us from the short-term pain of having to do anything at all by shifting the pressures of personal responsibility and potential accountability onto our future selves, we dive deep into the delusion that this setback (if we realise that it is a setback in the first place) is somewhat justifiable and certainly more rectifiable than the alternative.

Both options are ‘easy,’ but doing nothing is objectively easier than doing something, and we end up allowing ourselves the indulgence of short-term gratification at the expense of long-term satisfaction.

In short, the longer we delay the pursuit of our goals and dreams, the more scary they become, the more the excuses pile up, the more severe our anxiety and the more difficult it shall be to take that very first step.

Just getting started is, by no stretch of the imagination easy, but rest assured that time only serves to entrench our fears, not avoid them entirely.

We sure can run, but we certainly cannot hide from the repercussions of an unconsciously lived life.

As it has been said: “do the easy thing and expect a hard life“.

Take a leap of faith and the experience alone will cover the cost of admission.

Just get started on your dreams; you won’t regret it.

Just Getting Started

The mere thought of it makes us exhausted; sick even.

We know we need to get going, but we check the time instead.

We realise that there’s plenty of it left in the day and come to the conclusion that we deserve to watch another episode of whatever Netflix has got going on.

So, we set an alarm and sink into the couch.

But the more we vegetate and the more that alarm is blatantly ignored, the less likely we are to do what we know needs to get done.

It somehow becomes more out of reach, more scary, more difficult (especially if we had to start now) and most likely going to become ‘tomorrow’s problem’.

We reluctantly admit to the procrastination but things keep on getting rescheduled or pushed aside altogether.

Depression sinks in, like we have done to the bed in which we’ve squandered an entire day, snug under the duvet that gets tighter with each passing ‘just 5 more minutes’.

Having destroyed two ‘greasy gluten spheres’ and a bag of ‘crunchy salted fat’ to try and drown out the guilt of yet another wasted Sunday, we pull an anxiety-fuelled all-nighter, burning our eyes against the bright blue-light vacuum to which we’ve sold our soul.

We tend to have a growing list of big dreams being killed off by chronic inaction.

But procrastination is more like a symptom of an illness than the disease itself.

We are looking for a cure to the symptom, which is why we never seem to be able to overcome the underlying issue.

I, however, don’t intend on going into an in-depth discussion on procrastination and the bigger issues at play there in this post.

I wish to explore those initial, small, baby steps that we all need to take when we engage in anything we do, especially something new.

And, often, even though we’ve done something countless times, we just need to begin again.

Always adopt the attitude of “Just Get Started… Just Get Going… Just Do Something!”

Begin with the End in Mind

Where do we even begin?

Why not at the end?

I mean, the purpose of every journey is the destination, right?

It’s the ‘why’ to the ‘what’.

If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll land up pretty much anywhere.

And Murphy’s Law, you’ll find yourself in the most precarious of places or situations.

Begin with the end in mind — Stephen Covey

So, before you get started in anything (life in general?), it’s important to get your ducks in a row:

1. A Vision — For your Future — what you imagine your life should look like;
2. A Mission — The Roadmap, a Blueprint — a Broad Overview of How You Plan to Get There;
3. Goals — Essential Criteria You Have to Meet in Order to Achieve Your Mission and Realise Your Vision;
4. Milestones — Your Goals Broken Down into Deadlines for the Activities Making up Each Goal;
5. Activities — Specific Tasks You Must Complete in Order to Make Progress Towards Meeting Your Milestone Deadlines and Accomplishing Your Goals.

And so it Begins

This one is for the Introvert, the Procrastinator, the Fearful and the Novice.

This one’s for the depressed, living life in the past; the disengaged, living life detached from the present; and the anxious, living life in worry about an uncertain future.

This is for myself; a declaration to making a concerted effort to turn my life around… despite being all of the above (and more) and despite my aversion to risk.

… Despite the dysfunctional relationship I have with my comfort zone.

I am not ignorant of the work this journey will require, of the growth our future selves demand and of the fact that we will need to obliterate our limiting beliefs if we ever want to make a difference in this world.

You may not know how much you do not know, but we can only discover such things through failure, learning and progress.

I dedicate this post to every single person who comes across it and to every single person I am able to inspire with it.

This is technically supposed to be my introductory post, a note on what I have been through, a journal of what I’m going through and a look at what I wish to achieve in the years to come.

But I can only do this by starting somewhere.

My goal is to serve the public, to serve those people who are frustrated and want more out of life, to serve those less fortunate, to serve those who want to serve others… to serve you.

And so, I dedicate this post to you.

You may not know me (yet)… and I can’t wait to change that.

Welcome to the Public Server.

We’re Just Getting Started…

This is Just the Beginning

You can find out more about me here.

But, for the purpose of this post, I am just a humble boy from South Africa with a big dream of being able to use my writing skills and knowledge to help others in their everyday struggles.

I feel like I have been living in a sort of limbo my whole life, never sure of my purpose in this world.

I believe I have finally found that purpose!

And that is to help others, to help you and, in the process, achieve personal fulfilment.

Because even if this amounts to nothing, yet I was still able to inspire just one person to do something they would otherwise have neglected and regretted not doing, The Public Server will have served its purpose.

And it has been through this need to discover my purpose that I have found many people feel the same way.

From my personal experience and struggle, I have found that I am not alone in wanting more out of life.

Although I have not discovered the Holy Grail in respect of achieving success in all areas of life, I am on a constant journey of personal development in the hopes that I can pass on what I learn to others so that they may find purpose, achieve ultimate fulfilment or, at least, be placed in a position to have the best chances of success.

I find that my problem lies in a paralysing fear preventing me from moving; like knowing how to put one foot in front of the other, knowing that that is what I need to do in order to move forward, knowing that I have the ability to do it… but then having something intangible somehow make it seem impossible.

But once I am able to break past that fear, the momentum keeps me going.

I just need to get going.

Just Get Going

I am personally just getting started on a new journey.

I know very little about running a business because I have never personally owned a business before.

But how do you learn?

You learn by doing.

I’m afraid… No! I’m petrified.

Why am I doing this? Why do I think I can do this?

Starting anything new is scary.

It is the most difficult stage in any venture, but one of the most crucial steps.

There is a learning curve to everything at the beginning.

Even writing this is difficult and painful, even though I know (read: think) I can write; even though I believe I can help people.

The lingering doubts can rob us of our ability to just get going.

Maybe I can learn a thing or two from a baby learning to walk. Because, although it might be scary doing something it has never done before, potentially even dangerous, the excitement of achieving it simply overrides the fear.

Finding the Solution

My Journey involves improving my life and helping others, likewise, improve their lives in the following areas:

1. Health & Wellness;
2. Planning & Productivity;
3. Self-Development, Insights & Motivation;
4. Personal Finance;
5. Relationships; and
6. Self-Care.

When you start working on any one of the above areas of your life, all the other areas will systematically improve as a result, thus creating a loop that will alter the trajectory of your life for the better.

You will improve your confidence, gain overall competence, make better decisions, generally, and become the person you need to become in order to get to the places you want to go.

The solution to many of our problems is the act of just getting started; the courage to take a leap of faith on those things we believe in but never seem to be able to get off the ground.

Don’t make mountains out of molehills.

Make molehills out of the mountains.

Keep the bigger picture in mind, but break your goals down into manageable pieces.

If we focus too much on the end result — especially if we compare ourselves to those so much closer to where we want to be than where we are now (i.e., at the very beginning) — then it all becomes too overwhelming, and we give up before we can even get started.

Firsts

As they say, there’s a first time for everything.

It’s an easily overlooked adage when we’ve achieved any degree of success in anything we’ve done.

We forget that we started somewhere; that we were once a novice, an amateur at something at some point in time.

Nobody ever becomes an expert in anything overnight.

Your hero or role-model was once where you (we, I) are right now.

Rome wasn’t built in a day.

We should take care to appreciate those moments when we’re just getting started, as we will treasure them when we look back and see just how much we’ve done and just how far we’ve come.

Just Do Something

To help you on your journey (whatever that may be), I propose you focus on just a few key areas of your life.

Nothing major — Just. Do. SOMETHING!

Small, simple steps to get the ball rolling.

Remember: improvements in certain areas of our life will give us the confidence, the belief, that we might just be able to achieve success in more difficult arenas.

For instance, if you want to approach that crush you’ve been avoiding for the better part of a century; making slight, simple updates to the way you dress and take care of yourself, improving your health, developing your mental strength and implementing ‘easy’ wins into your day-to-day life (in other words, doing those things seemingly not being associated with, or having any bearing on, the act of actually ‘approaching your crush’), can turn a paralysing encounter into a challenge you can confidently overcome.

Getting better at believing in our abilities begins with proving to ourselves that we are not as useless and incompetent as we make ourselves out to be.

This is not done by facing our greatest fears head on.

No! Such a perilous task requires the necessary training and demands that we ‘earn our stripes’, if you will.

To overcome that which we believe is impossible is to take on enough of those aspects of that thing which we know are possible, so that the impossible becomes just another possibility we shall conquer on our way to the next impossible thing.

It is our limiting beliefs that need to be broken; our mindset that needs to be reset; our attitude that needs adjustment.

It is only in the ‘doing’ that we can initiate the processes of ‘undoing’ our negative ingrained beliefs and the harmful habits they have created.

So let us begin.

Gain Perspective — Motivation & Insights

A great place to begin our personal-development journey is with our mindset.

Potentially the ‘easiest’ of the self-help techniques to implement right away.

Not to say that the road out of our comfort zones and onto bigger and better things is ever ‘easy’.

But if we can somehow find the fire within us; a deep yearning for something more — something better — than our current circumstances and ‘rise to the occasion’ by, not only wanting to take the necessary action, but also putting ourselves in the right frame of mind to at least get started; then implementing the more complex strategies will go from being an ‘overwhelming’ thought to a somewhat ‘possible’ task.

Start with stimulating the necessary desire to succeed as well as the belief that you actually can.

The flip side to this coin is to limit our exposure to toxic environments and negative people.

Especially when our natural tendency is to slip into despair at the first opportunity.

Our aim is to find fulfilment and happiness, which is impossible if we are constantly surrounded by negativity, pessimism and cynicism.

Health

Another way we can develop our confidence and get out of our own way is to implement an exercise regime and adjust our diet.

According to this article by Healthline, “physical activity also stimulates the release of dopamine… and serotonin” which are important chemicals in the regulation of our mood.

When we exercise we improve our mood, our sense of wellbeing as well as our confidence.

And when our confidence increases, we are better able to deal with the challenges that life can throw at us.

Together with exercise, eating wholesome foods and cutting out the ‘crap’ will increase our energy levels and further aid confidence.

The bottom line? When you feel better, you do better.

Productivity

What Gets Measured Improves — Peter Drucker

We tend to fall into our days, weeks, months, years… our lives.

Victims of other people’s agendas.

We need to assume responsibility for our agenda if we ever want to succeed in life and feel fulfilled.

We need to have something to work towards, put a plan in place to get there and track our progress along the way so that we know we’re headed in the right direction — recalculating as needed — and motivating us to keep going as a clear picture forms in front of our eyes.

Where to From Here?

2020 not only marks a new decade, but also a chance for many of us to start afresh, with a clean slate; the opportunities are limitless.

Granted, it’s an extremely psychological and personal point (time being a human concept, after all), but that shouldn’t detract from its significance.

Just imagine, for a moment, what we could potentially achieve in ten years.

The Possibilities are Truly Endless!

I personally challenge you to dedicate the next decade to positive personal transformation.

Don’t plan further than ten years, however (although, having a personal vision for your life is foundational) and then set yourself goals as follows:

What will I have achieved in…

1. 10 Years (circa 2030)
2. 5 Years (circa 2025)
3. 3 Years (circa 2023)
4. 12 Months (circa 2021)

The closer to the present you get, the more specific you should become.

For instance, at the ten-year mark you can have a general idea of what you want to achieve.

But you should set very detailed monthly targets / goals you want to achieve over the next 12 months.

I recommend creating a curriculum (like you had in school or college) split into three to four categories (modules?), with each category requiring you to meet specific milestones over a given month.

E.g.) Read x number of books, run x times this month, spend x hours cleaning up a specific room in the house…

Remember: “What Gets Measured Improves” and also to always “Begin With the End in Mind”.

Close Your Eyes, Take a Deep Breath and Walk Out On Stage

There is a lot of ground to cover.

We’ve got a long and arduous journey ahead.

And it all begins with taking that first step.

It all begins (and ends) with Just. Getting. Started!

Whew, we made it!

Hey there, it’s Brad again.

Just wanted to pop back in and extend a massive THANK YOU for reading all the way through to the end.

I really hope you enjoyed today’s article and, if you did, it would mean the world to me if you shared it with your family and friends, on social media or via email. Print it, even, and hand it out. That’s awesome!

But only if you took great value from it, felt inspired by it and believe it would enrich the lives of those around you.

We know we’re not perfect, but we’re trying… like, really, REALLY hard.

Clearly!

But with your help, we can only get better!

The more people we can reach and the more support we receive, the more we can focus on delivering epic, quality content and the more we can learn and grow together in our global mission to Be Moved to Matter.

I also wanna hear from you, honestly!

I don’t bite unless requested to do so. And, even then, I charge for the privilege.

Share a thought or pose an idea or ask me a question. Tell me a story. Reveal a secret. Confess a sin!

We do our best to respond to everyone but will definitely prioritise those curious cats who are clearly on a mission to Gain Perspective, Get Active, Make Connections and Break Free.

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