So it’s the start of a new year, and just like you, I have a bunch of new goals.

This year, one of my big goals is to start doing video blogs alongside my speaking and writing. I have a goal this year to put all my written blogs into a video format, so that they can (hopefully) be shared with a larger audience.

There is only one big problem: I’m not ready.

I’m not ready because when I look at other people who do videos, I don’t have the same impressive studio, professional lighting or sound equipment.

More than this, I don’t have the perfect topic to launch with. Last year, I wrote over 100 new blogs, but none of them seems like the ‘perfect’ one to do as the first video.

Then it hit me, this topic – my feeling of not being ready – is the perfect topic to start with. I am actually in a great position to get started with a video blog about getting started.

Just getting started is hard for a lot of reasons. I’ve picked three that have stopped me in the past. Hopefully they will make sense to you too.

“I’m not confident enough”

When I say ‘I’m not ready’ this can really be translated to ‘I’m not good enough’ or ‘I’m not confident in myself’. This is a good thing to recognize, but it doesn’t need to stop you.

Confidence is really about trusting yourself. And the only way you really get to trust yourself is through experience.

The more you do something, the more you internalize it, and it becomes part of you. Eventually with enough repetition, you get a feel for what you’re doing.

At that stage you don’t worry about being ready, because you are confident.

With my video blogs, I plan to just keep doing them until I am used to it. Eventually my self-trust in my ability to video blogs will grow.

By the time I am actually ready, I will already be doing it.

“I’m scared”

A core reason why we don’t start is because we are scared. Scared of either failure, or rejection. These two fears are at the core of all human beings. We can’t avoid them, because they are part of who we are.

Just because we have these fears, that doesn’t mean we have to abide by them. Fear is just an illusion. It’s you imagining the worst case scenario and how it would feel.

The weird thing is, very rarely do our fears come true. Most of the time, we end up succeeding or at least improving our position by trying. We learn, we grow and increase our chances of future success.

On the rare occasion where failure happens, it is never as bad as you imagine.

 The same goes for rejection. If another person doesn’t like you, or something you are doing, it actually has zero power over you. Sure they can tell you their opinion, but it cant physically stop you.

So much of our lives are lived in small boxes created by fear of failure or rejection. We think that doing something is dangerous because of the illusion we’ve created. The reality is just getting started takes away the illusion and brings you into reality.

“I Don’t Know How”

This is probably my personal favorite of all the reasons. I hear myself saying “I want to, but I don’t know how.”

Every time we try something new, we all start from a place of total ignorance. We have no clue how to do it, even though we have a desire to.

Fortunately, we now have the internet and an unlimited supply of information to help us succeed. Anything you want to know more about is available. More than that, you have examples of people doing it in video form as well. You can also reach out to experts and they can teach you very quickly.

So the truth is even though you don’t know how, you can change that very quickly. The key is to just get started.

 What I have learned is that if you watch a few people do something, that is usually enough basic introduction to try it for yourself. When you start doing it, even badly, you learn quicker than sitting on the sidelines.

(As a side note: 
I am hoping that my first video blog is the worst one that I make. I hope as I go, they get better and I become more confident and skilled. But I know that won’t happen unless I just get started. I know this because it’s the same way I became a decent writer and speaker. I told myself ‘just get started’.)

If you just get started, and keep doing it, the confidence, the skills and (eventually) the results will take care of themselves.

But first, just get started.