1040 Ways to get started

SIX WAYS TO GET STARTED

Ways to Get Started.

If you’ve made a commitment to missions, the chances are you still don’t know how, where or when you can help. You may even have some why questions. Hang in there. It will come in God’s time.

The best way to get started at anything is – wait for it – to get started. This is not double talk. How many people do you know who have talked for years about writing a book, but they’ve never sat down at the keyboard. Or what about those who want to see the world, but have never obtained a passport. I was telling someone about my website and their response was, “I wouldn’t know how to do that.” Well, I didn’t know either – until I got started.

Here are a number of steps that worked for me.

1. Pray first: 

This may sound trite, but I can’t emphasize it enough. Start with prayer. Some people put in all the work, and as an afterthought ask God to bless their plan. That’s doing it backwards. First ask the Lord, “Do you really want me to do this?”

2. Trust God: 

If you feel that God is saying, “Go ahead,” you need to trust Him to lead you through all the other steps.

3. Get help: 

When you have prayed and trusted God, he will lead you to the right source of help. In my case, for starting my website, I found a video of Michael Hyatt’s that gave step-by-step directions on how to get the site and the blog started. Then I read his book Platform that treats the whole subject systematically

4. Start small, think big: 

I remember watching the shadowy figure of Neil Armstrong as he stepped on the moon. I’ll never forget those memorable words, “that’s one small step for a man, and one giant leap for mankind.” Who knows the consequences of your first small step. We’ve all seen proud parents boasting about their toddler’s first wobbly steps. You can’t tell them that it’s insignificant. They can already see him or her winning the marathon at the Olympic Games.

5. Prepare a master plan: 

In other words, know where you are going. That is the second part of Neil Armstrong’s classic statement – “One giant leap…” You don’t have to know all the mechanics and the details at this point. Matter of fact, if you did, you might give up. As I worked through Michael Hyatt’s book, I had to ask myself a lot of questions, like “Why am I doing this? Who do I want to reach? What subjects will I blog about? This helped me focus my thoughts and actions.

6. Don’t be overwhelmed by the size of the task. 

If you have followed the first steps, God will take you further. A number of years ago, I felt led to take a team down to Mexico to place recordings in the hands of migrant laborers. I didn’t have the right vehicle, I didn’t have the equipment or supplies, I didn’t have the finances, I didn’t know how I would do it after I got there, and I couldn’t speak Spanish. Throughout the planning process, God supplied each of those elements one by one, and the people to do what I couldn’t. We had a successful trip.

Read this blog from Michael Hyatt: