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Hey there, lovely people.

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Welcome to episode 11 of how to get your sheet together.

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The question that I received from my subscriber is how do you start doing something

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you have never done before?

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Well, first of all, let me address the elephant in the room.

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I have been incredibly busy sorting out a really big move.

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And I have also been dealing with some health issues, which I have written about.

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You're obviously always welcome to check out that post.

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So because of that,

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I decided to not do any podcast recordings for a little while because it honestly

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takes quite a lot of time to write it all out and then to rehearse it and then to

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record it.

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So I had a little break, but now I'm back.

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This is going to be a particularly petite pod episode though, because I'm still getting back into it.

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The next podcast episode should be of a more normal length.

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So let's go back to the question.

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How do you start doing something that you have never done before?

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Well, I'll take myself as an example.

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So I just moved into my own proper apartment for the first time in Uruguay,

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as opposed to being Airbnb-like environments.

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So all of a sudden, I had a crap ton of new shit to sort out.

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I had to figure out how to rent a place.

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I had to get an income certificate because I'm obviously a terrorist.

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I mean, I'm a self-employed person.

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I needed to get rental insurance, make sense of the rental ads to be able to find a decent place.

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I had to build my own furniture and I had to do all of that in Spanish.

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So naturally, I felt overwhelmed.

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And to be honest, I really had my doubts if I could even do all of this.

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But I did what I usually suggest to my clients.

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And that is my answer to the question too.

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So first of all, write down what you have to do.

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either in brain dump format, I have already mentioned this in the past, or in a list format.

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It really helps to have an overview rather than to have everything bounce around in

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your head and it gives you a sense of control as well.

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Secondly,

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determine what the first step would be and then break that step down to the

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smallest possible thing you can do.

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Then you also give yourself permission to stop after doing that one small thing.

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And the chances are that you will continue anyway,

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but it really takes away the pressure and it also stops you from burning yourself

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out straight away,

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which is very common for us diverges as well.

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Related to that is to also take as much time as you can to do it because stress has

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never helped our executive functions.

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It really messes with them.

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So make sure that you actually give yourself enough time to do all of this.

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Thirdly, if you are feeling particularly anxious,

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start by imagining what you want to do and also imagine a positive outcome.

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So your imagination is a safe space, right?

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So you can do whatever the fuck you want in there.

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And if you use that space, if you use that tool,

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To focus on the positive,

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it can really help to get started because very often we just go straight into the

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negative and that is stopping us from doing things.

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But if you just imagine a positive outcome, it really helps.

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My fourth tip is to ask for help if you feel like you are stuck.

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And I promise that you won't spontaneously combust if you do, even though it might feel that way.

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Honestly, I understand, my lovely people.

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I totally understand.

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But you just need help sometimes.

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So ask for it if you feel like you are getting stuck.

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It is okay to do that.

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And my fifth tip is to keep telling yourself that you are learning or to tell

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yourself that you are just experimenting for now.

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Of course, it depends on what it is, right?

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But saying those things to yourself really helps, again, to keep the pressure off.

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And I'm mostly looking at you, my fellow perfectionists.

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Saying things like that,

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like I am learning,

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I am experimenting,

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really,

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really helps to get some perspective.

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You know,

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you are just starting something new,

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which means that you won't be able to do things perfectly immediately.

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You're just learning.

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You're just experimenting.

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Okay.

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Okay.

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So that is it for today, people.

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I really hope it helped someone here.

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Also,

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I finally managed to set up my Buy Me A Coffee account because unfortunately I

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can't get paid via Substack as someone who is living in South America.

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So if you enjoy my podcast,

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if you enjoy my articles,

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of course,

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you're always very welcome to support me.

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Okay, that's it for today.

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If you have any questions, of course, send them my way and then I can address them in my next podcast.

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Ciao.