#62: 5 Simple Ways to Finally Start That Thing You Keep Putting Off

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If you’ve been circling around that thing you really want to do… but somehow, it keeps getting pushed to “later”? Yeah. This is your sign.

In this episode, I’m walking you through five simple (and surprisingly powerful) ways to start anything — even if you’ve been putting it off for months. These are the same strategies I use with my clients and in my own life when resistance shows up.

Whether it’s a big dream, a long-standing project, or even a simple habit you can’t seem to begin, I’m sharing five simple, practical ways to finally get started.

These aren’t hacks or rigid routines. Just small, doable steps to help you reconnect with your energy and show up for what matters.

And hey — if today’s episode speaks to you, it’s just a tiny sneak peak of the kind of support you’ll get inside Dream Studio. Come join us!

3 KEY TAKE AWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE

• Starting doesn’t require clarity — just one small move.
• Two minutes is all it takes to build momentum.
• You don’t have to go it alone — let someone in.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE

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Transcript

Speaker 3: 0:07

You're never too busy, too tired, too old, or too anything to pursue your dreams. Welcome to the Distracted Dreamer Podcast, where you'll learn how to move all those never ending distractions aside and chase your dreams with confidence.

0:30

Well, hello my friend. Welcome back to the Distracted Dreamer podcast. I am your host, Carlene, and I have something really exciting to share with you today. Dream Studio is opening soon. I'm talking like. Early February, so if you have ever wished for a warm, consistent space where you could get support and encouragement and some clear next steps for your dreams without having to figure it all out alone, dream Studio is being built for you. It's a place where women and midlife are gonna come together, and you're gonna get unstuck. You're gonna be able to reconnect with your energy and move forward on your goals and dreams. And you get to do it surrounded by a small group of really thoughtful and big hearted women just like you, who are dreaming right alongside you. And I am creating this community for me too. I need this. I need this community. And if I need it. I know that you need it too. And here's the really fun part. If you join as a founding member, you get to be part of that very first group, and that means you're officially an og. Come on now. Bragging rights for life. But more than that, you'll lock in a ridiculously good founding member price. And that rate you keep it for life no matter how much dream studio grows or what gets added to it in the future. You keep that price, plus you'll get first dibs on bonus workshops and early access to new content and some very sweet perks that I'm saving just for you OGs out there. So you can hop on the wait list now@coachcarlene.com slash ds for Dream Studio DS wait list. Coach carlene.com/ds waitlist and I will email you all the details when the doors open. Now, I want to acknowledge you and your dreams, whether your dreams are big or small. You know what? They are beautiful and so are you, but sometimes we struggle with the very first step. You know what I'm talking about, that space between wanting to do the thing and actually starting the thing. You know, it's that weird pause where everything feels a little heavier than it actually needs to. If that sounds familiar, it's kind of exactly what today's episode is about. So this is just a small preview of the kind of coaching and momentum building support that you'll receive inside Dream Studio. And I want to do this episode because I personally know how hard it is to start sometimes. I've struggled with it more times than I can count and I still go there and I don't think we talk about it enough how hard it can be to just. Begin even if it's something that we really want, something that's connected to our joy and our purpose and our creative spark. Today I wanna share five simple ways to start anything. It can be your big dream, a small dream, a project, a routine, a simple practice. These are small shifts that have helped me, and I think they might help you too. These things that I'm sharing with you, they are doable and they are designed to get you moving. No stress, no overwhelm, because you know what Your dream, it's still waiting for you and starting is how we say I'm showing up for it. Okay? So we are going to start with, the first way to get started is by letting someone else in. Let me tell you a, a quick story. When we moved to Tennessee two years ago, oh my gosh, has it really been two years? It has. Well, one of the first things that I wanted to do was remodel our walk-in closet in our old house. My husband and I each had our own closets, and in this house we share one. And while the space is totally workable, the layout, not so much. If you've been listening since the beginning of this podcast, you might remember me talking about this closet remodel and episode one. Yeah, that was 60 plus episodes ago, and yeah, it's taken a little longer than I had planned. But here's the thing, I finally got to it and I am proud of that. So over winter break, I felt that old familiar dread creeping in like, oh gosh, here we go again. January is gonna fly by and suddenly it'll be June and I'll still be staring at this closet situation that is not working. So you know what I did? I had already researched a few closet companies. That was the easy part. But this time I went online and I made the appointment. And that one action, it unlocked everything. So on January 3rd. We finalized our design. The install is scheduled for late February. Boom, done, and I was on a roll. So the next day I scheduled a design consult for our great room cabinets, shelves, the whole thing, and that one's on track for early February. So what shifted? Well, I didn't wait until I had all the answers. You know what we did? We made decisions one at a time with someone who guided us through step by step. I just let someone else in. So here's your nudge. What's something on your dream list that requires someone else's expertise or input? Maybe it's a contractor or a coach, or a designer or a coworker, or maybe it's just a simple conversation with somebody. You don't need to know every detail yet because we certainly didn't. But by reaching out, by scheduling that call, by sending that email, or looping someone in, you move it from idea to action. And you know what? This isn't just about home projects. It applies to work too. So if you need info from a teammate. Send the request, waiting on someone's feedback. Give a deadline. Feeling stuck on something that you can't do alone. Call in your people dreams. They don't always start with clarity. Sometimes they start with collaboration. Letting someone else in can be the very thing that keeps you going. Alright, we are moving on to number two. This is another way that you can get started. And this one's simple, but don't let that fool you. It's a total game changer. It is called the two minute Rule, and it can make an enormous difference, especially if you tend to procrastinate. If that's you, raise your hand. It's okay, I'm raising my hand too, and here's how it works. If something will take two minutes or less, do it right away. Just do it. Send the text, take out the trash, put the laundry in the machine. Wipe the counter, whatever it is. If it'll take two minutes or less, just do it Now. It sounds small. But it's actually a powerful time management tool because when you eliminate those little tasks that pile up, you reduce clutter, both physical clutter and mental clutter, and that energy, it frees you up to focus on the bigger things like your dreams. And let's be honest, a lot of what we're putting off. It isn't actually hard. We're not lacking the skills. We're not lazy. We're just resisting for some reason. But starting small, it gives us momentum and it builds confidence and it reminds us, oh yeah, I can do things. And here's a little twist that I love on this one is you can also use the two minute rule to start bigger tasks. Here's what I mean. You don't wanna write the whole blog post, then just open the doc and type a sentence. If you're avoiding a project, just spend two minutes outlining it. If you're not sure where to begin, set a timer for two minutes and begin anywhere. Because starting even just for two minutes, it often creates the motivation and momentum that we've been waiting for. And I guarantee you'll be in it for way more than two minutes. It's simple brain science. Take a quick peek at your to-do list. What could be done in two minutes or less? What could you start for two minutes? So go do that and you'll be surprised how far two minutes can take you. Alright, the third way to get started is to break it down. This one is for all of us who overthink, all of us who let perfectionism get in the way, and for the people who write, work on project and their planner, and then immediately feel paralyzed. Been there, done that. Break it down. Don't try to go from start to finish. Just start to start now, this is something I was coaching a client on recently. He was telling me how he keeps all his to-dos in his head, the whole big picture, all the moving parts, because that's what he's always done and it's always worked for him, but it's not working for him in his professional life anymore. And he has resisted writing them down because he was afraid of what that list would look like. Like if I see it all, I'll get overwhelmed and I'll just shut down. I totally get that, and maybe you can understand that too. But thankfully he was open to trying something different. So in the middle of our session, I invited him to just do a brain dump, no order, no pressure, no filter, to just write down everything floating around in his mind that needed to happen to finish the audit that he was working on. And you know what happened? He looked at the list and he said. Oh wow. That is not as bad as I thought it would be. Because here's the thing, when we keep tasks in our heads, they feel bigger than they actually are. They're vague and it causes stress, but once they're on paper, somehow they become manageable. They become real and they even become doable. So from there, we got specific, instead of just saying work on audit, he picked the next step. And he only focused on that. Not the whole audit, not the big strategic picture, just the next step. And because he wasn't spinning out in overwhelm. He actually felt calmer. And you know what happens when you're more calm, you make more progress, and that's exactly what happened. So that is the magic of breaking things down. It moves the dream or the goal from this big and fuzzy thing to something that's small and doable and actionable. So if there's something that you've been putting off, whether it's creative, work related, personal, whatever it is, try this. Do a brain dump. Don't filter it, don't organize it. Just get it all out and then pick the next step, not the whole plan, just the very next move, because the goal isn't to finish it all today. It's just to start. Okay, this next one, this one is simple and honestly, it's one of the most underrated ways to move your dream forward without burning yourself out. And I think I've talked about this in previous episodes, but it bears repeating here because this is the thing that literally changes the trajectory of my days, and it is to plan your day the night before, what you do in the evening. It matters just as much as what you do the next morning. In fact, it sets the tone for the next day. It's kinda like leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for your future self so you don't have to rely on willpower or inspiration when the day begins. So here's what this looks like for me. At the end of my workday, I write down the three to five most important things I want to get done tomorrow. Not a long never ending to-do list, just a few key priorities that I will actually move the needle on. And then, you know what I do? I schedule those tasks into my calendar. I time block them, and I'm gonna talk about that in a minute because one of the worst feelings is sitting down at your desk and thinking, okay, hmm, what should I do first? And then, you know what you do. You have that, that delay and that hesitation, and then you're like, oh, I'll check my email. Oh, a text came in. Oh, and before you know it, you're scrolling on Instagram, whatever it is that you're doing, or you're shopping on Amazon. And that hesitation, that is all it takes to lose momentum for the rest of your day because that is how you're starting your day is hesitating. And trust me, with the 20 plus hats I wear in my business, I have plenty of things to choose from. There's course creation and client work and podcast recording admin stuff, and networking and even just keeping up with life. And if I leave it up to how I feel in the morning, I guarantee I will not be working on what's most important. So let's say I decide that tomorrow I'm going to record a couple podcast episodes tonight, I'm going to set the stage. I am gonna test and prep all my equipment. I'm gonna make sure everything is charged and ready to go. I'm also gonna jot down a few talking points or an episode outline. And you know what else I'll do? I'll let my family know I'm gonna be recording at a certain time, so no one accidentally sabotages it mid recording. And that small bit of prep, it makes a huge difference because when tomorrow comes, I'm not spending energy setting up. I'm not wasting time deciding. I'm just starting. So this isn't about getting the perfect plan for tomorrow. It's about reducing the friction. So set your intention. Figure out what the first thing is that you are gonna tackle, set up your space and give your dream a smooth runway to take off that next day. All right. The fifth and final way to start anything, and maybe this is the most powerful of them all, is to block the time. I mentioned this in the last step because here's the truth, later is not a day on the calendar, neither is someday. Your dream, whether it's writing a book or launching a business, or just getting your closet organized, it deserves more than a vague mental note. It actually deserves space in your life, and that means putting it on your calendar. It is not real. Until it is on your calendar, and here's the key part, once it's on your calendar, you have to treat it like you would in an appointment with your boss or your best friend. Protect that time. That means no double booking, no casually just brushing it off when something else comes up. And if something truly unavoidable happens and you can't get to it, that's fine. Life happens. But, and, and this is important, you must reschedule it. I call that moving it forward. It's not a cancellation. It's a continuation because when you start treating your dream with the same respect and structure that you give other commitments, everything changes. You stop waiting for that mythical right time, and you make time, even just a little, and listen, your block, it doesn't have to be huge. 20 minutes counts. A focused hour counts. So open up that calendar. Find a pocket of time and block it because when you show up for your dream, like it matters, it's gonna start showing up for you too. Okay. Let's take a deep breath here and recap what we talked about today. We talked about five simple ways to start anything, especially the things that really matter to you. The first way is to let someone else in, whether it's scheduling an appointment or asking for help, get the ball rolling by involving someone who can move the dream forward with you. The second thing to do is to use the two minute rule. If it takes two minutes or less, do it now. And if it's a big task, just start for two minutes because momentum is actually magical. The third way to get started is to break it down. Get it all outta your head and onto paper. Brain dump the steps. Then find the next best step, and start with just that one start to start, not start to finish. The fourth way to make sure that you start anything is to prep the night before. Set your intention for what is it that you are going to work on tomorrow? What are you going to focus on? Don't leave the decision to tomorrow morning. Set up your space and make sure that you are clear about. What your priority is tomorrow before your head hits the pillow tonight. And finally the last thing. And if you don't do this, it doesn't matter that you did all the other things you have to do. This is you have to block the time, put it on the calendar, protect it like a meeting with your boss or your best friend. And if you miss it, that's okay. Move it forward. Just don't let it disappear. Because here's the thing, your dream isn't asking you to have it all figured out. It's just asking you to start again, not someday now, when it's perfect, just today with one small intentional step. So before this episode ends, here's a few action items to help you put this into action. First, pick one thing that's been floating around in your head and ask yourself, could I start this in two minutes or less? If you answer yes, go do it. Go do it right now, next. You could grab a notebook or your notes app and brain dump the steps to a Dreamer project that you've been avoiding. Don't filter it. Don't worry about the order. Just get it outta your head. Another thing you can do is open your calendar and block off a 30 minute window this week. Just one, label it with your dream and protect it because every time you show up for your dream, even if it's imperfect, you're gonna build trust with yourself and you're gonna create momentum and you're gonna start to live in alignment with what matters most to you. Doesn't that sound great? And I just wanna tell you, I am cheering you on always. And if you're craving more support like this, more coaching tools and a space to stay connected to your dream week after week, I'd love to see you inside Dream Studio. It's opening February, and if you join the wait list@coachcarlene.com slash ds waitlist, you're gonna be the first to know when doors open and if you join as a founding member. You are part of the very first group. You lock in the lowest ever rate for life. Plus you get access to special perks and bonus content. And you get that. I was here when it all began. Energy, oh gee, status my friend. Come add your name and email to coach carlene.com/ds waitlist, and let's get ready to build our dreams together. If this episode helped you feel more grounded or inspired. Send me a text at the link in the show notes or share this episode with a friend who might be stuck in this kind of before phase two because you know what? We're not alone in this and I can't wait to see you next time. Bye for now.

Carlene: 22:17

Oh, and one more thing. This is the legal language. You know, the stuff that the lawyers put together, and they say that I need to read this to you. So here we go. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I'm not a licensed therapist. This podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professionals. Got it? Good. I will see you in the next episode.