So many people are looking for the secret, the recipe, the roadmap for success. Or, at the very least, they’re looking for answers on how to live comfortably doing whatever it is they want to do.

These people insist that, if they can just get to the doorstep of success, they can handle it from there.

They claim that they’re willing to do what needs to be done. They claim to just need guidance on the approach.

But that’s not true.

The two most vital steps for success are super simple yet extremely difficult for many people: To succeed, you need to start and you need to finish.

You may think I’m being blasé, just saying something to have something to say.

But I’m dead-ass serious.

Successful people have said the same thing. And they stand behind it as some of the best advice they could offer.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s good right now, it just needs to exist.”

That’s what Austin Kleon, the best-selling author of Steal Like An Artist and Show Your Work, tells himself every time he’s drafting a book.

He said it becomes a motto that he repeats to himself over and over to keep himself writing. Because in the beginning, that’s all that matters–writing, producing a raw product.

Author Anne Lamont offered similar advice.

In her creative-world bestseller, Bird by Bird,  in the chapter “Shitty First Drafts,” she wrote:

“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something — anything — down on paper.”

To have a bestseller, you must begin with a draft. To get a draft, you have to start writing. And you have to keep going.

For success, there’s no recipe listing all the ingredients, no step-by-step directions.

There’s work that must be done. Or, nothing happens.

Success comes on the other side of completed tasks. ~KnowGoodWriter

But many people don’t want to hear that because starting and finishing a task without threat, oversight, or guarantees of reward is difficult, if not impossible.

So, if you offer them that guidance, instead of taking the advice and getting to work, people will still pretend they don’t know what to do or how to do it.

The writer won’t write. The painter won’t paint. The creator won’t create.

They’ll put obstacles in their way. They’ll lean into procrastination with tactics like dividing one task into 10 and then subdividing each of those into 10 more.

Meanwhile, as if they’ve been told nothing, they’ll continue to search for answers, sinking time into workshops, classes, and seminars—putting in hours without really getting anything done.

And, now that you have a good idea where I’m going with this, let’s switch gears and continue this chat with this episode of the KnowGood Podcast: