I had a really great conversation today with one of my students, and the reason why I loved the conversation so much is because I've had this conversation a lot with not just people or students, but also with my own self. And it gave me the idea to talk about it in this podcast episode. Because I can almost guarantee that if these conversations have been happening so often with me and myself, or between me and other people, Then, I'm pretty positive that you just might be having the same conversation with yourself too. And that conversation, my friend, is how and when do I start? We get so scared. To start, to move, to do what God is calling us to do, to take action, to put content out there, to start that project, to launch that offer, to write that book. We just hesitate out of fear, out of self doubt, out of confusion, to the point where that freezes us up. And we end up. Not taking action at all. And that idea in our mind just ends up being an idea. It never turns into reality. This is a place that I know a lot of us have been or are currently in. Where we know We are being called to start something. We know that God is whispering to us. He's giving us a specific idea. And maybe we don't know that for certain. Like maybe you're not sure if it's God telling you to start that thing or to move in this direction. Maybe you just don't know in full yet. But there is something there. There is something that you feel. There is a tug. There is multiple variations of a thought, of an idea. But see, that's the easy part. Just playing around with the idea, envisioning it, imagining it, thinking about what the result of that thing will look like once you actually take action on it. It all just remains in your head. The hard part is doing something about it. The hard part is doing the work, putting in the effort, taking action. And there's probably a lot of different things that are coming to mind for you right now that make what I'm talking about relatable to your situation or your very own thoughts. But what I really want us to zero in on right now is what you feel that God is calling you to do. I don't care how small or how big it is, but there is something there. There's a specific thing. And yeah, you might have many ideas and thoughts, but I want you to try to zero in on that one specific thing. What is that for you? And why are you hesitating on starting that thing? Or, why did you stop if you did already start it? Why did you stop being consistent? Why did you stop putting in effort? What happened? Like I said, a conversation I've had with so many people, including a conversation I've had with my own self, because it's a real one. So I want to talk about the art of just starting. I want to simplify this for you in today's podcast episode so that you can do what God is calling you to do. But in addition to that, I want to take it a step further and I want to talk about two very important things that I believe we all need To take that action and to sustain that action, meaning keeping up with the consistency behind that action so that we can see the results of our effort and of God's hands over our efforts. So let's first dive into the art of starting. We overcomplicate starting. We as human beings come up with every excuse possible to not start or to not restart. We're too busy. It's not the right time. I'm too tired. I don't really know how. The world and my life feels like it's chaotic. Maybe I'll do it tomorrow. We come up with all of these excuses to make us hesitate. Now, I want to be very clear. The only time you should be hesitating to do what God is calling you to do is if God told you to hesitate. If he told you to stop, if he told you to go to a different direction, if he told you to take a moment to pause before you take a moment forward, and I've talked about this in previous podcast episodes, but the best way to hear God's voice in telling you to start or to stop something or to pause or to hesitate is to get into his word is to actively pray daily. to lean into God's presence rather than leaning so heavily into the presence of this world. That is when you become more clear on what God is saying. However, if it's not God telling you to hesitate, to redirect, or to stop, and you are simply making excuses that fit within your comfort zone that end up holding you back from starting something that God is wanting you to start, then we gotta unpack that, my friend. We have to work through that. In fact, here's how I want you to re look at it. You hesitating on starting to do something that God has been calling you to do. You are not just doing yourself a disservice. You are basically telling God that you do not want to listen to him. The creator of the world, the creator of you, yourself, as the beautiful human being that you are, you are telling him that you don't want to listen and that you would rather go your own way. In addition to that, you are delaying the process of impacting the people in the future that are going to be transformed through what God is calling you to start. God doesn't just want to move in our lives or have us start something for our own benefit. Meaning, he doesn't just want us to start that business so that we can have income and flexibility and financial freedom for our own personal lives. He doesn't just want you to write that book so that you can become this well known famous author. He's not asking you to start or to do something just for your own benefit. God will use what he's asking you to do to be a vessel to people that need it. You, my friend, are simply the steward over that mission, that business, that book, that project, that step, whatever it is for you, there are people waiting on you to do it. And they don't even know that they're waiting. But God does. And He's trying to use you, not just to better benefit your life, but to benefit the people that are going to be impacted by what God is doing in your life and through your life to get it out to them. But you won't start. You hesitate. You're not learning to be consistent with it. You're playing a game of stop, go, stop, go, stop, go. My friend, enough is enough. It's time to move. It's time to go. It's time to have enough faith to keep going. Because if God called you to it, he will see it through. You will be okay. You just have to trust that enough to go. And that's the thing. When you go, when you move, this does not mean it needs to be some dramatic, huge step. Maybe it is, but many times it's not. Many times it's a small, imperfect, messy step. Multiple small, imperfect, messy steps that you take and over time you learn, you grow, you pivot, you figure things out, you navigate your way through to the point where the steps you were once taking that were small, imperfect, and messy are now getting more bigger and more perfected and more clear. But you gotta start with the smaller ones in order to get there. And that is where we get stuck. We don't want to take the small, imperfect, messy steps. Why? Because we feel uncomfortable, we feel awkward, we get insecure, and then we just end up not doing anything. That brings me to the next thing that I want to talk about in today's episode. What do you need to have in place to actually do something rather than not doing anything? What do you need to take that small, imperfect, messy step so that you can move and start and work on just keeping it going? Now, I believe that there are a few things here, but I want to highlight two specific ones based on my experience. In starting something and finally getting consistent in doing what God was telling me to do, no longer hesitating, nothing is holding me back, and just going in full faith and full trust. Now, let me be clear, the foundation of your movement, of going, of starting that thing, the foundation is faith. The foundation is trusting God. That is the foundation that you are standing on. However, the mentality you need to take that first step and to keep taking those steps in order to pursue what God is calling you to do. There are two things that come to mind for me. First one, confidence. It's really hard to move if you lack confidence. Confidence is what will help push you to take that first step and to keep taking those steps. So I want you to think, instead of thinking about taking that first step that you know how should be taken based off of what God is calling you to do. I want you to think, how can I first work on my confidence so that I can take that first step? There's a couple of things that have helped me personally build my confidence. Let me start off by saying confidence is a journey, okay? I do not wake up feeling confident every day. And when I finally did start to work on my confidence, I didn't just wake up and all of a sudden I felt confident and I was good to go. It truly is a daily battle. But what helps me to reshape my confidence every day so that I can keep taking steps. The first thing I think about is, is reflecting on how unique I am. You are one out of eight billion people that God chose to create. He chose you to be made in this world, to come into reality. He chose you. That is not a coincidence. That is not by mistake. He chose you. He meant for you to be here. He planned for you to be here. There is nobody out of the 8 billion people in this world that have your exact same DNA, your exact same experiences, your exact same style and personality and story. Nobody. That goes to show how unique God made you to be. I do not care if you think you're boring, if you think you're an introvert, maybe you are. That doesn't matter. What matters is that no matter the kind of person you are, you're unique. God made you. On purpose, for a purpose, and you, my friend, have got to build the habit to reflect on that every single day as a beautiful way to build up your confidence. Recognize your uniqueness, all the quirks, all the weirdness, all the things you like about yourself or don't like about yourself. You are unique at the end of the day. When you reflect on how unique you are and the fact that God made you to be unique, he made you on purpose for a purpose, you start to build a confidence in that. You are not a mistake. You are a beautifully, wonderfully god empowered person made in his image to do something in this world. You just need to see it and to work on appreciating how unique you are. Another thing that has personally helped me build up my own confidence so that I can do what God is calling me to do, I had to drop the comparison game. This is a hard one because it's so easy to compare yourself to everybody. What do they look like? What are they doing? How much money are they making? How much success do they have? What does their business look like? How many copies did their book sell? What are they wearing? What does their house look like? What is their family like? What is their health like? We just compare, especially when it comes to status, especially when it comes to finances, especially when it comes to family. Especially when it comes to looks, we just compare whether you mean to or not. And that comparison game can tank your confidence so much to the point where you start to feel purposeless. You start to feel like that thing that God is calling you to do. It's not really God. You're not important. You don't need to pursue what God is calling you to do. Let me just remain in the background while everyone else shines their light. That is not what God wants for you. But in order for you to see that God has more in store for you, you need to stop playing the comparison game. Comparing your timeline to everybody else's, your success to everybody else's, where you're at versus everybody else. You have to stop that. Think about the boundaries that you might need to put in place to stop that. Do you need to stop scrolling on social media because social media makes you compare? Do you need to Limit certain conversations because if you have certain conversations, it starts making you feel insecure because you're comparing yourself to that person. What boundaries do you need to set for yourself? Think about that. Because that is what can help you stop the bad toxic habit of comparing yourself to others. It will only tank your confidence if you continue to do that. So, if you want to pursue what God is calling you to do and finally move and stop hesitating, first work on that confidence of yours. Like I said before, this is not an overnight thing. It is a daily battle. But you choose to fight in that battle because you know that as long as you say yes to God, pursuing what He's calling you to pursue, you know that all good things can come from that. He's got you. You will be okay. There's impact coming out of that. There's lessons coming out of that. There's results and outcomes coming out of that. You will be okay. Get confident, my friend. Let's stop wasting time and do what needs to be done to work on our competence. The second mindset thing that I truly believe that you need to do what God is calling you to do to finally start and to stop hesitating, to finally get consistent rather than playing the game of stop, go, stop, go all the time. That second thing, clarity. is what clears everything up in that mind of yours. You're no longer confused. You're no longer doubtful or questioning things. You have clarity on what you're supposed to start and how you're supposed to start it, how you're going to go about it. This one is a tough one because I think clarity comes and goes. We have seasons where we feel so clear and ready to go. And then we have seasons where we're like, I don't know what I'm doing. That is going to happen. But what matters is your ability to get back up in those moments where you just have no idea. You don't know what you're doing. You just feel like you're in the dark. You get back up and you take it day by day in figuring it out until you get that new found clarity. To work on getting clarity, it's going to take you slowing down so that you can get clear. Think about it. Your day is busy. You have so many things going on with work and projects and family and household stuff and hobbies and family stuff, all the things. When we are so busy. It's really difficult to get clear in our minds when it comes to pursuing what God is wanting us to pursue and how exactly we go about it. That is what I mean by clarity. You start to understand not just what He wants you to do, but how you are going to go about it. When we know the how, it gives us more of that push to continue taking steps as we pursue that calling. But in order to get that clarity, you have to slow down. You have to take time out of your busy day to breathe, to sit, and to plan. It's very essential to plan. Put a game plan together to figure out the how. Now here's what I would recommend. Pull up a document, pull up a Google doc, and just start writing out different ideas for how you are going to go about that thing, start that thing, launch that thing. Just write out different ideas in how. As you do, invite the Holy Spirit into that document with you as you write. Take breaks as you type to breathe and to pray over the words that you just wrote. Even close your eyes and meditate on what you just wrote and see if there's anything specific that God is telling you. As you take this moment, you will find yourself rewriting things, being more descriptive in what you're writing, organizing things to the point where you will look at that document and you just might say, wow, I have a plan. I have clarity. I know how I'm going to go about this. Doing this can also help you see. Doing this can also help you align your plan with God's plan, because at the end of the day, we can plan as much as we want, but God's plan will always supersede our very own. So when you invite him into the plan with you ahead of time, it helps you to align more with his will and be open minded to what God has in store, what God might say regarding how he wants you to go about this. And maybe you get stuck doing this. Maybe you're not sure. Maybe you have a document pulled up and you pray and you type and you try to invite God in and you're just not sure still on how to go about what it is that he's calling you to do. If that is happening. Take some space, come back to it the next day. I personally have had so many moments of coming back to it. I would have an idea, I would make a plan, I'd get confused, I'd pause, I'd come back to it. Next day, organize it some more, I feel better, I have clarity. A week later, I'm confused again, so now I need to come back, get clarity, figure things out, remap it. It's okay. When you step into the world and you're kind of getting caught up in things like comparison and busyness and insecurities, these are things that can cause confusion in our mind again. So when that happens, just go back to the drawing board. in that with you. He will help you navigate. He will help fight that mental battle with you step by step so that you start to see more consistent clarity in your mind and therefore feel more of that push and gain more of that confidence to keep taking steps and doing what God is calling you to do. It is time to start. Enough of being scared. Enough of holding yourself back. Enough of the hesitation. Enough of the excuses. Bring all of that negativity to God. Lay it at his feet. And just say, you know what? I'm going to do this thing. It's not going to be perfect. It's going to be messy. But I'm going to move. And I'm going to trust you God to move with me. And what's so amazing about God, He just might give you the results and the outcome that you have been praying for, that you have been looking for. But He also just might surprise you. The work that you're putting in to the steps that you're taking, He might surprise you and give you different results and different outcomes that end up being better than what you initially thought. It might look different, but it just might be better. Your goal is to keep holding on, to keep going. Rest when you need to rest, but make sure that your consistency in pursuing what God is calling you to do is flowing, it's going. I know this sounds super corny, but there's truly no better time than now. There's no better time than now. A lot of times we always think about the what ifs, right? Well, what if this goes wrong? Well, what if I fail? Well, what about my money and financial situation? Well, da, da, da, da, da. We think about all the negative what ifs, but what if instead we started asking the positive, what ifs more often? What if this works? What if this gets me to financial freedom? What if this impacts a lot of people that need to be impacted by this right now? What if? Sit with that. Think about it. And ultimately in this episode, I just want you to get confident. I want you to gain clarity. to do what God is calling you to do. It's time to start. It does not matter how small that thing is or how big and monumental that thing is, whatever little or big thing that God is asking you to start. And you know what it is. There's something in your mind that is popping up right now. You know exactly what it is, whatever that is. It's time. Let's move. Let's take those small imperfect, messy steps. And believe God that those steps will get more perfected. They will get more clear as you continue moving forward. I seriously cannot wait to see the small or the big impact that you make in this world. to other people, to yourself, to your family, all because you decided to say yes to God. It's time. Now, I got some pretty exciting news. If you enjoyed today's podcast episode, and if you want to do a deep dive into getting the confidence and the clarity to do what God is calling you to do, and you want more direction and how exactly to go about it, especially if you have entrepreneurial ambitions, I got a new free three day mini course that I would love for you to access. You can grab that in the YouTube description down below, or right in the podcast show notes where you're watching this episode. This is a three day experience that is going to walk you through mindset, marketing, and money strategies That can help catapult you into successfully building what God just might be wanting you to build this very year. It's 100 percent for free. I'm not going to lie. It's some of my best work yet when it comes to free content. And I would love to give it away to you. And while you're at it, feel free to share this episode with other friends or family members of yours that could use it as a way to uplift and encourage them to start that thing to move. It is time. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next episode of the God Empowered podcast next week.