When presented with an important task, perhaps your most vital responsibility is to starting doing something about it right at that moment. This isn’t a time to procrastinate, put off, or prioritize; this crucial task is your priority.
Whether because of habit or fear, we can sometimes find ourselves avoiding even the most critical of assignments and responsibilities. We worry and we postulate and we hesitate, hoping that eventually we will be granted the confidence or the ingenuity or the motivation.
The hardest part of a daunting task can be getting started, which is why you need to act right now. Doing so will help you feel empowered, and that momentum will carry you through the rest of the task.
If you’re hesitating, acknowledge that you’re hesitating. Be aware of your actions. If you’ve got a bad habit of procrastination, realize your bad habit. If you worry about all the things that can go wrong, focus on the benefits that will come when the task is accomplished.
While planning is an important part of any assignment, if you wait until you’ve developed the perfect plan it’s likely that your deadline will have already passed. You’re going to learn more about what needs to be done, and get more done overall, by proactively working on a problem instead of hypothetically analyzing possible solutions.
If you want to solve a problem in an efficient and effective manner, then take immediate action. Start doing the research, making the phone calls, delegating the tasks, and pounding the pavement. Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t want to do.