Starting a business – or running a business – can be a daunting task. It can seem like the whole project is just too big, and like there are too many things that you just don’t know how to do.

It’s easy to be struck by overwhelm and freeze into procrastination. Or to become incredibly busy focusing on all the wrong things.

All of this makes it easy to beat yourself up and doubt if you’ll ever make this business happen. If you want to spend a lot of time in bed when you’re starting your business, don’t worry, that’s totally normal.

So let’s talk about how you can take care of the emotional stress that building a business brings, and combine that with action – because that’s what will move you forward, right?

The question is:

How can you overcome the paralyzing fear of not knowing exactly what you’re doing and still take action?

The answer (drum roll): Baby steps.

I know, sexy.

But really, when I got serious about this business thing, I needed to both ensure that I would move forward, and not crumble under the weight of not knowing exactly how I could make it work.

So I promised myself: One thing a day. I will do one meaningful thing a day for my business. If I want to do more I can, but even on the shitty days I will do one small thing to move me forward.

And you know what? That was exactly what I needed to gain some momentum and make it through the scary first months.

Whenever I reach a new level in my business, or face a big challenge, or just get plain scared and want to crawl back in bed, I come back to this simple process: One thing a day. Because I can do that, no matter what.

Now you might be wondering:

How do you choose your one thing?

Because God forbid you might do the wrong thing.

Don’t get perfectionist on this one. 

Simply ask yourself: What’s the next best thing that would move me forward?

It can be small or big, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that it’s doable and moves your business forward in some way (vs. just being busy doing whatever unrelated thing seems like a smart strategy).

Sometimes it’ll be something scary, like emailing potential clients or writing a guest post. Other days it’ll be figuring out your scheduling system or finding a wordpress plugin.

The key is simply to do something – anything – that has to do with your business and will move you forward in some way.

Especially in the beginning it can be best to just focus on simple things that don’t scare the crap out of you, just to get you in the swing of things.

Once you’ve gained some momentum you may find yourself doing 10 things, or doing one really big and meaningful thing a day.

Over time, things will start to add up. It’ll be normal to do something for your business, just like it used to be normal to procrastinate on it.

At the same time, because this process calls for only one doable thing a day, there will be less beating yourself up, less mindless hours of work and more peace of mind.

Seriously, try it. This might not sound fancy, but it’s one of those things that actually work out great if you can get yourself to apply them.

And if you still feel like one thing isn’t enough and want to do ALL THE THINGS instead, this article might be for you. It happens to be titled: “I feel like I should be doing ALL THE THINGS”