I recently watched a video of Malaysian-born entrepreneur Vishen Lakhiani giving a talk about his journey of developing Mindvalley to what it is today.

It’s an incredible story.

And one of the things he said, which really stuck with me, was that ‘epic things begin with small, humble steps.’

Whether that’s learning a new skill, starting your own business, developing your side projects or even crafting a route into a job that you truly love… nothing will take shape until you begin taking small, baby steps in these areas.

While I’ve talked about the importance of vision and accepting responsibility for exactly where you are, I’ve often found that a lack of belief and perfectionism prevents a lot of people from starting; making that first step forwards.

These factors often result in me hearing one of the following responses when I enquire as to how they have progressed since our last conversation:

• “It’s not the right time at the moment.”
• “I’m actually thinking of starting on it next week/month/year.”
• “I’m waiting to get these in place first before I begin.”

Let’s be honest.

Those that say the above more often than not, will never start. They are the sort of people who give in easy to distractions (e.g. something always seems to come up that takes them away from focusing on what they told themselves/others they want to do) and put off starting anything to the mythical land of “tomorrow”.

Over time, while they idle by and watch others progress and go on to accomplish great things, they will look back and wish they too, had started then.

For perfectionists, you simply don’t need to be the best at what you do. Otherwise you’ll never begin!

Release your expectations of perfection and realise that you will mistakes along the way and that it’s OK. It’s all part of the journey.

As J K Rowling states: “It’s impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all.” 

With regards to the exponential growth experienced by others, this really boils down to one thing, and that’s momentum.

To get anywhere, you need to get moving.

Once you’ve got a vision for where you want to be heading, the key here is to begin small, but most of all start! It’s the secret to building momentum because nothing builds this better than getting a few victories under your belt.

It also has the powerful benefit of building belief.

Because energy builds on energy, this puts you on an upward cycle: the increased belief in yourself feeds into you taking more action the next time, producing big results, which further boosts your belief, and so on. 

In essence, little wins leads to big wins and small accomplishments lead to larger accomplishments. 

You won’t see the big results straight away I admit, but this is where consistency pays off. That momentum leads to what is otherwise known as the compound effect.

If you’re moving towards a healthier lifestyle and your first step is eating one healthy breakfast a week, you won’t see the physical effects after one or even two months.

As you build more momentum in this area however (from more regular workouts to replacing fizzy/sugary drinks with water), physical benefits become more evident as you move out to 18 months, 24 months and beyond.

If there’s just one thing I would want you to take away from this, it would be the following: you get rewarded in public for what you spend years in private practicing. 

When will you start all the things you said you were going to do or want to do?