Like many of you, maybe, I can be in moods where I struggle with things like perfectionism and procrastination.

I told someone that recently and he said he was surprised to hear it. At which point I said I was surprised to hear that he was surprised. It was one huge awkwardly pleasant surprise for both of us.

He asked me how I managed to build and run a business and, on top of that, write a book. And said that he too dreams of having his own business and writing a book, but he just can’t find the motivation to keep things going.

And then he sent me a sad gif so I could imagine his sadness to a greater degree.

Things like this happen every now and then, and I’m still learning the best way to respond to them.

Here we have this young dude, full of potential, knows more or less what he wants to do, but just can’t keep himself accountable to actually do them.

I imagine there are loads of people like that, because to some extent, I can be like that too.

Well, he asked me what he should do and I wanted to help, but I didn’t have much time with him, so I told him this: Just Take Action.

Do something. Anything. It doesn’t matter how small or how crappy the result will turn out. Just do it.

What to start a business? Just start with some light research. Make lists. Outlines. Start writing your ideas. Potential industries. Potential vendors. Types of customers. Problems you can solve. Issues that fire you up. Solutions you can bring to the table. The people and technology you would need for those solutions. Make just a few phone calls. Send just a couple emails. Etc. Etc.

It doesn’t matter how small the task is, just go and start there.

Just Take Action.

He said something you might be wondering: “What about the motivation?”

Motivation does beget action, no argument there. But action also begets motivation.

It’s not just: Motivation > Action
It’s more like: Motivation > Action > Motivation

As soon as you create a bit of momentum, it’s a lot easier to keep going.

So, if you want to write a book, don’t just start writing your book. Start by writing one paragraph, or one chapter title. One small anything.

Sooner or later, before you know it, you’ll have what you’re trying to create.

P.S. I used this tactic every time I needed to work on my book, and because of that process, I ended up with about 70 titles for my book. Most of them were terrible. Here’s a picture of a few of them: