"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." Les Brown

What a brilliant quote from Les Brown! We all need to appreciate the fact that we don't have to be great before we can make a start on becoming great.

Your first cooked meal might taste atrocious but starting on the road to skilful cooking could eventually lead you on to be a culinary blessing to your family and friends!

Every one looks forward to my brother's meals! My first meal ended up buried on the outskirts of the scout camp where I had attempted it! We had fried sausages instead and my cooking skills are still severely limited. But every day, I have the opportunity, at least, to become more like my brother

You could take your first martial arts lesson today. You will have started on the path to black belt and beyond. You could end up saving lives! At least 20 of my students have saved themselves from injury and possibly death.

You could start leaning 'html' right now even if you are not sure what the word means. Eventually you could learn how to 'mine gold' on the internet and teach others how to fight their way out of poverty and recession.

Inspiring opportunities to achieve greatness are everywhere but starting on the road to achievement can be difficult.

Some people have made a start on this road with little time and little money. One writer lacked paper, space and time but still made a start with what he had.

The famous martial artist, Geoff Thompson, wrote his first book on a roll of toilet paper sitting in the factory rest room where he worked. He is now a well known author and award winning film maker.

You can get started by breaking any giant task down into small steps or even small pieces of toilet paper! Most people can just about manage to take one step at a time.

Wikipedia defines not starting or procrastination as: "A behavior which is characterized by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time." It has even been described as an illness.

How can we attempt to deal with a reluctance to start without visiting the psychiatrist first?

Something as simple as tidying your room can help. It is easy to put off any task if you know you will have to struggle to find the tools or papers you need to get going. If, on the other hand, your room is well organized, you will not be delayed by a frustrating search which can tempt you to give up before you start. Keep the tools you need within easy reach.

Robin Hall, the author of 'The Cartoonist's Workbook' wrote: "Try to keep the equipment you need to practise your cartoons as near at hand as possible. Sometimes the THOUGHT of having to get things ready is enough to make us switch on the telly."

The imagination is more powerful than the will. See yourself confidently writing that article or taking that action you have been putting off. Imagine yourself starting and finishing what you have begun. See yourself happily viewing the results of your actions. You will then be much more likely to begin.

Many years ago, the great Norman Vincent Peale realized the power of the imagination: "Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your imagination."

Your mind can stop you starting by bombarding you with all kinds of worries and images of failure or embarrassment. Use this same mind and imagination to reverse that process by making the mental effort to visualize yourself doing what you have so far failed to do.

Perhaps the key step to getting started is to decide on what is most important in your life. Paul Graham suggests a useful guideline is to think about what you would like to appear in your obituary! "He or she did the shopping" is unlikely to cut it unless you did the shopping for an elderly neighbour.

Paul also points out correctly that working on one thing means procrastinating on other things like shaving and doing 'errands'. Some great people ignore mundane details in favor of greater ideas. My step brother has been known to leave his shoe laces fashionably undone. Instead he fills his mind with grander things like the history of the Visigoths in Spain!

Right now, writing this article is more important to me than reading my emails so I am working on it first thing. Ignoring some key emails might be the price I have to pay for writing the words you are, hopefully, still reading.

I started and finished this article by following much of the advice above. This advice could well help you to take action on starting your most important task today.

Firstly, appreciate the simple fact that anyone can make a start on the path to greatness. You don't need a certificate or permission to begin!

Secondly realize that others, like Geoff Thompson, have started and finished notable tasks in spite of difficult circumstances.

Thirdly, tidy your room or office so that it is easy to find the tools you need to get started. Don't allow frustrating searches to block your path to success! A tidy room can even generate a kind of energy of its own.

Fourthly, imagine yourself making a start. Feel the joy of finally making the kind of moves you have been putting off. Finally, you are doing what you knew you should be doing! Finally, you are seeing and feeling the results of your achievements!

Fifthly, focus relentlessly on what is important so that you can avoid the distractions which may choke your attempts to make a start on what matters most.

If you find acronyms helpful in remembering lists of things, you might find the acronym ACTIF useful in focusing on the five steps above i.e.

Anyone (can make a start right now)
Circumstances (can be overcome)
Tools (should be readily available)
Imagine (yourself finally getting started and succeeding)
Focus (on what is important) Procrastinate on the rest.

You can remember the acronym ACTIF by 'acting as if you are already successful'.

If you would like to read some more valuable advice summarized by acronyms check out the following url:

http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine or on your site but please include the resource box above

John Watson is an award winning teacher and 5th degree blackbelt martial arts instructor. He has written several ebooks on motivation and success topics. One of these, already mentioned, can be found at http://www.motivationtoday.com/36_laws.php You can also find motivational ebooks by authors like Stuart Goldsmith. Check out http://www.motivationtoday.com/the_midas_method.php f you haven't yet read The Midas Method, don't wait a minute longer to do so:http://www.motivationtoday.com/the_midas_method.php The Midas Method of Stuart Goldsmith has been a best selling self help book for years. The Seven Secrets of The Millionaires is less well known but is a great follow up to the Midas Method. It has great motivational power. Less politely, it will give you a great kick up the butt. The price has been lowered to $9.97. Take a look at http://www.motivationtoday.com/seven_secrets_of_the_millionaires.phpI