Starting the Journey
Hello and welcome to the first Iron Bloom Project Blog post! My purpose with this series is to regularly write about topics and ideas related to health, mindset, rehabilitation and fitness. I know your time is valuable and limited, so I’ll keep each article under a read time of 5-10 minutes and make them as quick and actionable as possible.
It seems fitting since I’m just starting out with this website, company and blog that my first blog be about just that: STARTING. Regardless of what context it’s in (starting your fitness journey, starting a new habit, starting a business, you name it), getting started is simple in principle…but in practice, it never seems to be that easy.
I can vouch for this big time. It took me 2 years to work up the nerve to launch this business and get started. 2 YEARS! Whenever I got a surge of motivation, I’d tell myself, “Okay Pat, now is the time.” I’d sit down, do some work, then hit a wall, get discouraged or overwhelmed, talk myself out of it, and stop. The reversion to inaction became easier and easier, and before I knew it, an entire year had passed by and I was exactly where I was at the same time last year. Sure, I had put out social media content and started to expand my skillset in physical therapy school and with personal training, but I hadn’t taken any significant action towards starting my dream: building a physical therapy and fitness brand centered around making the gym accessible to everyone and building a culture of movement and longevity.
That anniversary of inaction, around May of this year, was what finally lit a fire under my behind and goaded me into action. I looked back at where I had been in May 2022 and realized that I’d hardly made any progress towards starting the business, despite having thought about it every day for the past year. I looked into my future and saw myself in May of 2024 having the same thought, sitting in the same place, doing nothing, having made no forward progress. And I knew that I couldn’t let that happen.
So I embraced my fear of the unknown, all my insecurities, all of my self-doubts, and committed. I STARTED.
I won’t lie to you, it doesn’t get easier. Half the time I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s scary as $%!+. But I’m so glad I took the jump. Mistakes and failures are coming, there’s no question. But that’s just part of it. And I’m honestly excited for it, because every action I take building towards my goals is a step forward, a step further from where Pat circa May 2023 was at.
One of my favorite quotes is from former President Harry S. Truman: “Imperfect action is better than perfect inaction.”
I wholeheartedly agree. How else are you going to get where you want to be if you don’t take action? How else are you going to learn and grow and live a life that’s fulfilling? Who cares if you’re not taking the “right” or “perfect” action? Such a thing probably doesn’t even exist.
If you take 1 thing away from this little whirlwind of a blog, let it be this: START. Just start. Doesn’t have to be anything dramatic. You don’t have to print huge flyers and stand on a street corner twirling them and advertising your business. You don’t need to go book a flight to a $10,000 business conference (unless you really want to).
My recommendation (and what I wish I would’ve done for the last year instead of being laden down with paralysis by analysis) is this: spend 5 minutes a day working on the thing you want to start (your business, your health, whatever it is!).
5 minutes! That’s nothing!
You can do anything you want with that time as long as it’s working toward the thing you want to start. It could be as simple as writing down your goals, listening to a podcast, watching a Youtube video on website design or just talking to a friend about your idea. But be consistent with that daily 5 minutes, and by the end of the year you’ll have devoted 30 HOURS of time to your project. That’s the absolute minimum if all you do is 5 minutes, but I’m willing to bet that once you start stacking small wins and gaining momentum, your passion will take over and you’ll end up spending a lot more than 5 minutes a day on your project.
The coolest part? On that 1 year anniversary of STARTING, you’ll be able to look back at where you were a year ago and see the progress you’ve made. You’ll see how capable you are and you’ll have undeniable proof that you have what it takes to do the damn thing.
So go START. And send me a message a year from now telling me how far you’ve come :) I’ll be thrilled to hear from you.
P.S. GDST!
