I've had so many good ideas, and launched none of them.
Sound familiar?

and the more of life I experience, the more ideas I try, the more I grow to realise that

Execution & Consistency is everything.

However there are a few hurdles to get past first and in this article I want to break these down and try to understand the reason why I never stick with something for long enough.

Caveat: Everyone' situation is different, I can only speak for my and the people whose lives I see every day (friends, family) so some of this may not apply to you, however I hope it helps someone out there.

Everyone wants to start a side business

It's so common, in fact pretty much everyone I know has said this to me at some stage, but what stops us from actually succeeding at it, or even starting in the first place??

Well lets break these issues down and solve them.

1) "I don't have a good idea"

For this one, I'd say try to be observant - What is a problem in your day to day life, what is time consuming that could be improved?

2) "I have a great idea but no idea how to achieve it"

I think this is less common, but can be solved by research and this is the first step to any new idea taking off... .

but it's at this point that the first real hurdle arrives.

3) "I have no time"

I used to say this to myself all the time.
Then I checked my calendar:

  • 7am: Wake / get ready
  • 8am - 6pm: Commute & Work
  • 6-7pm: Cook / Life admin
  • 7pm-11pm: Watch netflix, Surf social media, etc.

I had time to watch Netflix, so lack of time was just an excuse.

So what was actually stopping me then?!

4) I had no energy

Boom! This is the root of it.

After a full day of work I couldn't think any more, I was exhausted.

So with this being the crux of the issue, and what I suspect is the core issue for many (not all) of us, how do we overcome it?

Well I researched this and here are a few possible causes:

  1. Poor sleep
  2. Decision fatigue
  3. Poor diet
  4. Mindset / story we tell ourselves.

So if they are the issues how do we resolve them?

Poor sleep
This is important to pretty much everything in life and heaps of info is available online so I won't recreate it here. Here is just one of many articles to help.

Decision fatigue

I couldn't find much on this, which kind of suprised me. What I did find can be summarised as:

  • Making decisions is like a muscle, the muscle gets tired.
  • Reduce decisions you need to make in a day (A common quote is that Mark zuckerberg wears the same thing each day, to remove that daily decision).
  • Make important decisions early in your day.

However this isn't much use to us, when it's now the evening and we're exhausted and want to progress our new potential unicorn.

So what can we do to ensure we have the energy?
Well I noted it above, but I too kind of missed this obvious change.

Wake up earlier.

Yeah it seems kinda obvious, but if decision fatigue (Or any fatigue) is leaving you exhausted, lets switch the day around.

Lets do our side hobby BEFORE work, so we're energised.

I tried this, previously I would awake at 7-8am, but

I started getting up at 5am, It's been a game changer!

Now I get my hobbies/side hustle/whatever it is you wish to call it done before work.

I've started this blog, setup a YouTube channel (although it had to go on pause briefly as I had some exams I needed to study for), learnt video editing, dropped 10lbs, and feel A LOT better. All from waking up earlier.

Now if you're convinced you're a 'Night Owl', then by that definition you probably get a boost of energy in the evening so don't need to apply this, lucky you! 🙂

Poor diet
Now I don't think this will be the main reason for not pursuing something, but it may affect your energy levels so I left it here for completeness.

Try to eat well, take care of your body, you only get one.

Mindset / Story we tell ourselves
Perhaps this one is more specific to me, but when I think I should go for a run, I seem to suddenly feel sleepy.
It's almost instantaneous, and I have to drag myself out for the run.

So my fix is I just force myself do the task.
I wasn't tired 5 minutes ago, so this is obviously just my lazy brain playing tricks!

5)"I'm worried about..." - Fear

This is the next sticking point for me.

What if my store fails?
What if no one reads my blog?
What if Donald trump sues me?!

Ha, ok made the last one up.
My point is your mind can race and convince you not to do something.

Here's my strategy for solving this.

  1. Write down all your fears.
  2. Now write down what would happen if they did materalise.
  3. Now write down how you can mitigate them
  4. Now write down the realistic chance of them even happening in the first place (Or ask a friend, because you'll probably have already convinced yourself theyll definitely happen).

Now you have a plan!

Mitigate, Avoid, Transfer, Accept - These are the main choices when it comes to managing risks in any organisation, so we can do similar with our fears.

Some you may just need to Accept, as they may happen, maybe a friend will laugh at your blog. But who really cares?

If they're more severe, if there's a high chance you may end up in jail, then perhaps find a new idea 😉

"I don't have the Motivation" / "I can't be bothered"

Now the other key one people will think about is 'motivation' but I think this is a bit irrelevant.

Why? What would it be irrelevant you idiot, surely we need to be motivated to do it?!

Definitely, I agree, but I think fundamentally, the motivation behind wanting to do something has to be intrinsic - to come from within, YOU have to truly want it.

If you don't truly want it, then there is no sleep, diet, or magic potion for this. Sorry.

The only trick is figuring out what you truly want and striving for it.

For example, getting in shape.
For the past 5-6 months, I've not really cared if I'm brutally honest with myself.
Sure, it would 'be nice' or 'I would like' to walk down the beach with a six pack, but I didn't truly WANT it.
I actually 'truly wanted' to get Takeout and eat Crisps far more; the 6pack wasn't the priority, until it was.

Now summer is approaching, I feel motivated now and truly want to be in shape - So I've started to fix up my diet & exercise.
I've dropped 10lbs and the abs are on their way.
However this motivation had to come intrinsically, the good thing is, motivation has a snow ball effect

Once you get started at something, it gets easier to keep going as your success spurs you on to keep going!

Which brings me to my final 2 points, which are so important, so I'm glad you made it this far.

The snow ball effect once you get started

Let's take dieting as an example that's relevant to me right now.

In the first week of dieting, it was tough, not letting myself buy chocolate or crisps, or drink booze, etc took a fair bit of mental resistance which as we noted above, is decision fatigue and it's exhausting.

However, after week 1 I had dropped 2 lbs and this gave me a HUGE BOOST of motivation to continue.

That occurs every week now, 1-2 more lbs, taking me into the next week, rinse and repeat... more and more motivation to continue.

Consistency brings compounding results and compoundation is the 7th wonder of the world.

If you're not familiar with Compounding, it's often mentioned with regards to investments.

A single $1000 investment today for 50 years at 10% yearly return, will compound to be over $115 000!

However you can extrapolate this to your target audience, where things really take off!

If you launch your new product or blog, you may get 10 customers/readers.

A while later, those 10 have told 10 others. Now you've 20, they tell their friends each and you now have 40, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2400+++ you get the point.

The power of exponential growth online, is insane.

So that's a wrap.

I hope whatever has stopped you before, won't stop you now.

I believe there's a solution to everything, and I wish you the best of luck!

Thanks for reading.

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