Three habits that pave the way to doing anything.

When starting a project with a steep learning curve or making a difficult decision in life, like, starting your own business or quitting your job, or getting married, paralysis and overwhelm can take a tight hold on the process.

The mind can take over with endless theorizing and little doing or starting.

Here are three things I do to break through the paralysis.

1. Commit to tiny steps. I set a timer for 9 minutes and commit to only doing that work until the buzzer goes off. Sometimes all I do in that 9 minutes is start a task list, or read all the correspondence that I'd avoided. If 9 minutes is too long, set it to 6 minutes. There is no “too tiny.”

2. Start slow. (This assumes my life is not in danger, I have money to meet basic needs, etc.) Things pace themselves naturally. Momentum picks up when all is in alignment. If momentum doesn't pick up at all, that is helpful data.

3. Use my internal compass to make decisions. I have a list of 10 values that I wrote a decade ago. I revisit it annually to make sure they are still true for me. I revisit this list when I have to make a tough decision. I lay my options over my values list, and often, the answer comes to me. I line the decision up to the life I want versus lining it up to the life I might like.

I repeated the above until I started my own business. I did the same until I moved into my trailer. I did it again when I upgraded my trailer. I did it to learn how to knit socks and how to juggle.

I am doing it now as I figure out what is next for me. It works. Try it.

Reposted on medium.com.