Today on Episode #9 How to START when you don't know the first step? , we dive deep into the reasons that hold us back from pursuing our dreams and uncover practical ways to take that crucial first step forward.

In this episode I discuss:

-the deep rooted reasons why most people don't go after their dreams

-different paths that people create to take action and how you can forge your own path

-4 step process to transform procrastination to productivity and move the needle forward

-practical tips to assist you and build momentum in your action journey

-the surprising truths about why coaching and courses aren't always the best choice

Call to action:

Do it scared. Do it without knowing all the pieces. Get some info, some resources and some support and just do the thing.

Affirmation:

I can accomplish anything. My dreams are worthy and valid. I owe it to myself to at least try.  

Links:

• Alecia-Canadian Immigration Consultant
• Action Coaching - Want support to get unstuck, take action and move the needle forward? Let's talk!

This podcast is hosted by Captivate, try it yourself for free.

Disclaimer:

This podcast includes affiliate links that, when clicked and purchased, may generate revenue for me and the podcast. I only recommend things I truly love and stand behind.

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From a Full Cup is a mental wellness education podcast that teaches women to prioritize their wellness and put themselves first, because you can’t pour from an empty cup. 

I'm your host Natalie Mullin , Certified Wellness Educator, Speaker, Facilitator and Teacher. Every Thursday I release a new episode, teaching women how to dream big, take action and move the needle forward in life.

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Copyright 2024 Natalie Mullin

#6 Episode How to start when you don't know the first step

[00:00:22] Natalie: So I'm gonna continue going. Remember, with wellness practices, it's never about a quick fix. It's always about small baby steps that you can manage and that you can build on and maintain consistency. It's time for the take action segment where I celebrate friends, clients, and podcast listeners who are able to take action and move the needle forward.

[00:01:05] Natalie: Tips to help people who are in the immigration process. So you can check out her page in the show notes. And if you've taken action, please send me an email, or if you're listing on Spotify, you can just hit reply and let me know so I can celebrate you. So our episode today is about how to start when you don't know the first step.

[00:02:00] Natalie: Do you wanna go in and try it? And I said, well, you know, I've never tried bubble tea before. And she said, neither have I. And I decided, you know what? At that time I had a teabag company. It was called Taste Tea Naturals. And I was like, you know what, sure. Let me go in, because you know, it's not about tea bags, but it's still related to tea.

[00:02:49] Natalie: So next, she told me to try these jellies. They were called passion fruit jellies. And I said, okay. But I was not excited because I really truly hated the tapo. So I decided to try passion fruit jellies, and I was sold. These things were magical, just magical little flavor bombs that were chewy. And I love the texture and I love how it complimented the drinks.

[00:03:43] Natalie: That was a Tuesday. By Thursday evening, I had decided I was opening up a business in Antigua and I already had. Purchased some product and had it shipped to Antigua. So while I was there in Canada and joined, the rest of my vacation product was being shipped to Antigua for me, um, to start my bubble tea business.

[00:04:30] Natalie: Cause I didn't have all the skills that I needed and I was kind of struggling to keep that one afloat in the first place. So how it dawned on me to order product and decide I was gonna do an actual physical business in Antigua, like would I release it and think about it? That was really quite wild. And I did not know, not one single thing about bubble tea.

[00:05:17] Natalie: We started out with a tent and you know, the first day was a disaster and I forgot sugar for the drinks and we didn't actually have any customers because the one customer who was gonna buy a drink forgot his wallet, but we gave away a bunch of drinks and you know, we had a good time. And I ended up having that business for.

[00:06:09] Natalie: And what's so cool is that I now have that legacy. I can say that I was the first person to ever bring bubble tea to Antigua. In history. That's pretty cool. Not a lot of people can say something like that. And remember, I had zero experience with bubble tea. I didn't even know what it was. So I say all that to say you don't have to have it all planned out.

[00:06:56] Natalie: I talk to a lot of people who have ideas that they wanna bring into the world. Or maybe it's a change that they wanna make in their life, but they often feel one of two things, either unequipped or overwhelmed. Both leave them feeling stuck. And in a place of stagnancy. And I want you to think for a second, are there any areas of your life where you feel stuck?

[00:07:48] Natalie: I wanna know what are those little dreams that are in your heart that you just have not. Given voice to you, haven't given action to.

[00:08:25] Natalie: They're just scared to pursue their dreams because they're worried they might fail. And this can be related to self-confidence or concerned about what others might think about them if they don't succeed. And you have to reframe your thoughts to tell yourself. Failure is okay. There is, it's very true.

[00:09:05] Natalie: And that's directly related to self-doubt. A lot of people just doubt their own abilities and their skills, but you don't have to rely just on your abilities or skills. You can partner with other people, you can improve your skills, improve your knowledge, improve your resources so that you are more grounded and equipped to pursue whatever your dream is or your goal.

[00:09:52] Natalie: We're not gonna do anything different. What? Like, we would not progress as a society, like for all the people that created the internet. Thank you. Thank you for taking action. Because I personally, I'm a person who has benefited from being around during the age of the internet. I don't think I would've survived pre-internet.

[00:10:41] Natalie: And I'm gonna talk about this in a different episode, but this is how you push past the comfort zone and this is how you get things done. And for other people, it's about perfectionism. And don't get me wrong, I'm not one for raggedy things. I have a standard, I have a really high standard, and I try really hard to meet that.

[00:11:27] Natalie: No, no, no. Let's, let's aim, let's aim for that A or maybe a b plus. Okay. But let's get going, right? Like, don't just say to yourself, well, I don't think that I can release this into the world because it's not perfect. And then you work on that. Perfect, perfect, perfect goal. Or aspiration for the next 20 years.

[00:12:06] Natalie: You have to just get started. And for others, and this is a big one, it's comparison to others and. This is tough because just, I don't know why, but our society is just one where people compare themselves to other people and it's good to compare yourself in terms of. Oh, look at what that person's doing. I think I could do that too.

[00:12:47] Natalie: And so you just keep thinking for some reason that you guys are like twins and that you have parallel situations and therefore you should be in the same place, or you should be at the same uh, yeah, the same, basically the same pace of life or, or maybe have accomplished the same things, and that's just doesn't make sense because you're not the same person.

[00:13:26] Natalie: You kind of have to find your footing. Now. Once you find your footing and you're secured and anchored, then you can look a little bit more to see what other people are doing. But really you need to compare yourself to yourself year after year. Are you improving? Are you growing? Are you learning? And if you are, then let that be the measure.

[00:14:16] Natalie: I want you to think of yourself as an Olympic hurdler, and I want you to embody that role and ask yourself, how can you overcome these challenges? How can you jump over each hurdle one by one? Your path does not need to look like someone else's, and yours might be like a zigzag line and somebody else's path is a spiral and somebody else's goes up and then it goes down.

[00:15:00] Natalie: Just focus on yourself and what you need to do. So how can we move forward in the right direction and move this needle forward? I'm gonna give you a list of some practical strategies, but remember, just find one thing that you can try to start. Don't get overwhelmed and try to do them all. And before we do these practical strategies, I think some three easy questions to ground you are, what do you wanna do?

[00:16:04] Natalie: So you can also use things like webinars or, or um, YouTube or forums, but give yourself a timeline with this. I would suggest no more than a week. Now, it depends on what your goal is because if you're trying to build, I don't know, a NASA rocket, while I think you do need to give yourself a little bit more than a week, but remember, it's not, we're not giving this timeline to complete it.

[00:16:56] Natalie: I think that we forget how simple the first step has to be. It could just be making an appointment to go visit NASA or drive by NASA or watch a YouTube about nasa. Like the first step is not okay. I've now drafted my. Design for my first rocket? No, no, no. The first step is way, way smaller than that. The second step is to immerse yourself in the thing.

[00:17:41] Natalie: Okay. You just gotta immerse yourself in the whole world of what it is that you want to do. And for step number three, you can find a program or a course if you want to shortcut your learning. Now, I don't always recommend this, and if it's for information alone, I'd say skip it because everything is out there on the internet for you.

[00:18:24] Natalie: And it might not even be a formal coach. It might just be someone you ask for 30 minutes of their time and you come ready with specific questions. And there is such a thing as course fatigue or course overwhelm, and also a lot of course, creators and coaches are charging some super high prices and the value is not justified.

[00:19:02] Natalie: And step number four, I would say, is to start with a scale down version of the dream. Just to start. So just test things, analyze, tweak, and then repeat it at a higher level and keep rinse and repeating until you're, you get to your pole. You just need to make it up as you go along, really and truly, because if you just sit there and you wait for everything to be perfect, that just might not be how your story was gonna go.

[00:19:52] Natalie: Or overcome mom guilt. Like there are so many things that can be your goals. So whatever it is, the point is you still need to take action. One thing you can do is just put all your ideas in a Google Doc, and as you get clarity, you start to move some of the ideas down, or maybe you start to cross them out.

[00:20:28] Natalie: Talk to people around you about what your ideas are. Now you have to be talking to people who are going to support you. There are a lot of just negative NAS out there. There's a lot of people who are scared and don't wanna take action, and therefore they don't want you to take action either. They don't want you to be great if they're not, so they're gonna keep you down.

[00:21:06] Natalie: And you could also do this via the internet. I really suggest just writing out your ideas on Reddit or Discord or in Facebook groups. Now, if this is something like, let's just say you're starting a special kind of business and there's proprietary information, um, and it's life changing, then maybe don't do that, right?

[00:21:43] Natalie: Do you mind sharing with me the first three steps that you took or the biggest decision that you had to make? And a lot of people are, are willing to answer questions, to be honest, a lot of people are flattered when they're asked these kinds of questions, but you just have to be mindful and respectful of their time.

[00:22:22] Natalie: I don't have time for a conversation, but if you shoot me an email, I'll get back to you within a week. Okay? So lever, leverage the relationships around you to see who already knows something about what it is that you're trying to do. And it's so important, and I'll say this over and over again, it's just about baby steps.

[00:23:01] Natalie: And the reason I say this is because most likely something is gonna either go wrong or going to go differently from how you thought it was gonna go. And so it's good if you have a little bit of wiggle room to pivot. It's like, I don't know, for, for anybody who's had a baby and they created this birth plan, like I had a two page birth plan with bullet points and bolded sections, I printed multiple copies.

[00:23:49] Natalie: And having that bit of preparation from her was helpful. And at the same time, it was helpful for me to at least write down the ideas that I wanted to have. Now, did any of those ideas come true? Um, you know, not really. Maybe 10%, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. It's okay. It was just a thought.

[00:24:30] Natalie: If you're looking for support and accountability to help you take action and move the needle forward to get closer to your goals, then visit nataliemullin.com/services and I'd be happy to have a conversation with you to decide if. Action coaching would help you and be a good fit for you. If you notice that in life you're often not able to take action, this is speaking to something bigger.

[00:25:19] Natalie: You need to figure out what the block is so you can address it and move forward. My call to action today is to do it scared, do it without knowing all the pieces, get some info, some resources, and some support, and just do the thing. Whatever the dreams are that are placed in your heart, whatever the goals are that you want to accomplish, take action and move the needle forward.

[00:26:12] Natalie: I want you to know that to take action. You do not, I repeat. You do not need to fully know what you wanna do. You just need to have an idea and a direction, and if you feel unequipped or unqualified to start working on your dream, that's okay. Take the step anyways. That first step instantly qualifies you for greatness because you took action.

[00:27:01] Natalie: So in closing, I believe in you and I'm cheering you on whether the thing you wanna do is personal and will only impact you, or it's got a wide reach and will impact millions or something else in between. It doesn't matter. All that matters is that you honor your vision for your life and put your best foot forward to bring them to life.

[00:27:40] Natalie: Subscribe to my weekly newsletter in the show notes to get more wellness content. This podcast is brought to you by Captivate, the best podcasting platform. And if you're looking to start a podcast, you can start a free trial by clicking the links in the show notes. Until next time, continue to serve yourself, your loved ones, and your community from a full cup.