If you’re thinking of starting a new project, creating a business or beginning a creative outlet but have no idea where to start, that may actually be a blessing in disguise. Sure you don’t need to think too much about what you’re making if you’re just drawing a quick sketch or painting, but if you’re thinking about starting something more long term without a solid idea, you may be intimidated. Luckily, if you’re thinking about starting something new, you likely already have an idea of where you want to go. All you have to do is try something, and listen to yourself.

It’s easy to look at successful companies or masterworks of an artist and think that those ideas came to the creator fully formed, and created in one go. However, this is usually never the case. Amazon was originally going to be called Kadabra, and started only selling books. Facebook (now Meta) started as a less than kind website where people rated other people on their college campuses based on their physical appearance. Airbnb started as a company where you could rent air mattresses in homes. The more you look into your favorite companies, the more you’ll see that success is more a factor of persistence and change, than clairvoyant vision and perfect execution.

You may or may not be working on the next Facebook, but if you aren’t, and just want to get started on working on something, then just begin to think about where you want to end up. Think about what motivates you to get started on your project. Don’t get too hung up on specifics. Be general with your thoughts, and consider that is realistic for you to accomplish.

If you only want to start a creative side project, don’t oversubscribe and commit to yourself something that is too much work compared to your available time. Setting realistic goals will help you feel positive about your progress, and not get down on yourself by not meeting unrealistic goals.

Anything that you want to do, just break down your goals into smaller milestones. If you want to start a business, then break that up into setting up a website, setting up your social media, incorporating your business, and launching. Those are all different things to work on, and by separating the tasks, they will become more manageable and satisfying to work on. Anything is possible, just not immediately. Where are you going to start?