Before you go hiking, you have to pick a trail to hike. You can look through guidebooks, browse around online or ask your friends. Once you’ve picked the trail you want to hike, you need to find out where the trailhead is. The trailhead is where you will start hiking. You park, get your gear ready and then start hiking. Knowing where the trailhead is might be the most important part of starting a hike. If you don’t know that one thing, it will be very difficult to hike that trail.Starting new projects is a lot like hiking. It’s an adventure. You don’t know exactly how things are going to go. You can check the weather but it’s never exact. You can look at pictures of the trail but you won’t know every exactly what it looks like until you are there. And there is one place that is the most important part, the trailhead. Like hiking, you have to have a trailhead for your project.All you need is the trailhead to startYou just need the trailhead. You don’t need to know every single twist and turn and where everything is going to end up. All you need to know is where to start.That big project that’s in your word files or on your calendar or just sitting in the back of your mind, why not start it now? They’re big. They’re scary. You have no idea how it’s going to end up or where exactly it’s going to go. Like hiking, it’s going to be an adventure.One thing is for sure. You know where to start. I guarantee it. You may not have any idea where it’s going to go. Or any idea what steps you have to take to get all the way through. Or any idea at all about how long it’s going to take. But you know where to start.And here comes the reason behind this post. You don’t need to know all that other stuff to complete a project. You don’t need to know every step along the way or exactly how long it’s going to take. You just need the one thing you can do to start. You just need the trailhead.This is not a one time thingThe fear of starting is a tricky thing. “Starting” makes it sound like it comes up when you start a project. When you make the plans and get moving and get some momentum going. That might be when the biggest fear happens but it’s not the only time.”Starting” is actually every single time you sit down to write, to paint, to build, to edit, to plan. Every time you do work on your project you are “starting” for that day or that session. And every time the fear can creep in.Every time that fear does come up, just remember that you don’t need to know all the pieces, you don’t need to see the whole trail, you don’t need to see every part.All you need to start is knowing where the trailhead is.Happy Hiking,~Ross