Many times when we con­sid­er some goal we want to achieve, we think in terms of the big pic­ture, the end­point. We fan­ta­sise about the day we ac­com­plish a ma­jor goal

or achieve a burn­ing dream.

We bask in full-blown sat­is­fac­tion and cel­e­bra­tion and we taste the ben­e­fits those achieve­ments will bring. That is good; vi­su­al­i­sa­tion is a cru­cial part of achiev­ing any goal or dream we have. Yet, we al­low fear to keep us from re­al­is­ing all that we imag­ined. Rather than take those ear­ly steps that will spark a rhythm to pro­pel us for­ward, we choose to dwell on the neg­a­tive pos­si­bil­i­ties and do noth­ing. If this has been your ex­pe­ri­ence, the fol­low­ing tips may help you make the brave start you have been avoid­ing.

1.Start Sim­ple.

The dream may be grand and that's all right. Oprah of­ten says, "Dream dreams that are as large as your spir­it". So do that. Dream big; vi­su­alise it in all its splen­dour and imag­ine the eu­pho­ria when you hold it in your hand. Then be­gin walk­ing and work­ing to­wards that dream. Some dreams en­tice you to jump right in. Most dreams how­ev­er, re­quire a care­ful­ly de­signed plan and a sim­ple be­gin­ning. Risk, ad­ven­ture and step­ping out of your com­fort zone can seem like a mon­u­men­tal en­deav­our filled with fear and neg­a­tiv­i­ty. Sur­mount the fear and neg­a­tive ex­pec­ta­tions by mak­ing a sim­ple de­ci­sion and tak­ing the sim­plest first step. Read an ar­ti­cle or a book to pre­pare your­self for what may be ahead. Write your thoughts in your jour­nal; put your fears on pa­per. Buy one item that will be­come part of your tool kit for work­ing your way along the path to your goal. Iden­ti­fy one per­son who is will­ing to be your sound­ing board, your men­tor or your trav­el­ling com­pan­ion. Al­though you are start­ing sim­ple, you still need to sched­ule reg­u­lar times to as­sess and re­view your progress and to im­prove your strat­e­gy for tak­ing fur­ther steps. The road ahead may be long and dif­fi­cult and your fears may paral­yse you. In the ear­ly days of pur­su­ing your dream, keep things sim­ple. Make sim­ple de­ci­sions and take sim­ple ac­tions to help you set up the mo­men­tum of reg­u­lar fo­cused and ded­i­cat­ed ac­tion.

2.Start slow.

Re­mem­ber the say­ing by John Hey­wood, "Rome wasn't built in a day." A big de­ci­sion and a ma­jor step can re­al­ly put a spoke in your wheel, but "Slow and steady wins the race" is yet an­oth­er say­ing that helps to al­le­vi­ate feel­ings of over­whelm. If for ex­am­ple, you've signed up to study a par­tic­u­lar sub­ject, but the syl­labus is packed with so many projects that you're run­ning scared from day one, take a breath and start slow – one project at a time. Des­ig­nate a place to study or do projects. Sched­ule a time to de­vote to your work and get to it on time every time. Think­ing and wor­ry­ing about the class­es to come and projects for next se­mes­ter, ex­ams and re­sults, on­ly helps to height­en your anx­i­ety, com­pli­cate your process and hin­der your progress.

3. Start now.

Whether it is a ca­reer change, a new hob­by, an ex­er­cise reg­i­men, re-dec­o­rat­ing your home or a sim­ple prac­tice like start­ing a jour­nal, there is no time like the present to be­gin. More­over, the soon­er you be­gin, the soon­er you will find your­self at the end. As you stand on the brink of a new year, don't let the big pic­ture, fear and over­whelm dis­tract you from mak­ing a start on what you want to achieve. Start sim­ple, start slow and start now.