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For me, starting is always the hardest part of anything. I can be a horrible procrastinator about the simplest things, making myself miserable about tasks small and large, often for more time than it would take to actually do the tasks. (Isn’t it funny how you can be miserable about something without even doing any work on it?)

Pretty much every time, once I finally start, I realize how ridiculous it is to have waited so long, but I never seem to turn that lesson into doing better next time. Well, that’s about to change.

I had a realization about this over the weekend that put it into perspective. As I mentioned earlier, I took two weeks off from work to work on my ebook and try affiliate marketing. The ebook just sort of sprang up and took over my life—I don’t know how it happened, but I started that within less than two weeks of having the idea. But the affiliate marketing is something I’ve been putting off for over three months! I bought an e-course to walk me through exactly how to do it and everything, and I believe it can become a source of income for me.

The course (Affiliate Marketing for Beginners) is really good and very thorough, and once you know what’s going on, it’s not rocket science. I don’t think I’m going to get rich with it, but if I set up a bunch of affiliate marketing websites, I believe over time I can earn enough to support myself.

So why did I put it off continually for three months, and with incredible intensity during the time I took off specifically to work on it?

I finally figured it out. Over the weekend, I bought Chris Guillebeau’s Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself. One of the things he says in it is that some people do really well to throw themselves at one thing exclusively, but for many of us with low attention spans, it’s better to start a bunch of things at once.

Especially for beginners, if you start a bunch of things, you can see what works or shows the most promise, then develop those things more intensely. Some things will fail and some will succeed; the key is to maximize your strengths by throwing the most energy at the things that are working best—those are the things you can turn into something great.

Did you catch that? Some things will fail! Letting them fail while you focus on the best stuff is actually a strategy, not a failure!

I always thought I was doing it wrong because I have a hard time choosing just one thing to pursue at any given time, and I pick things up and drop them a lot. But when you look at it this way, it’s not being a directionless birdbrain, it’s experimental discovery! It’s research! Woo hoo!

Also, quitting stuff instead of hammering away at it and trying to beat it into success is not being a failure, it’s optimizing your resources and playing to your strengths!

Looking at it from this perspective has changed the whole mental game for me. Suddenly I have tons of ideas and can’t wait to start them all! In particular, I did finally start the affiliate marketing—bought three domains that look promising, set up dummy sites on two and built a real site for the third, plus I’m kicking around an idea for a fourth niche. That’s all in the three days since Thanksgiving.

It’s so freeing to look at things as “just trying this” instead of “I hope this is the grand answer to all my problems” or “this thing has to work or I’m a failure!” If you expect everything to be perfect, it’s really scary to start something, because then you’re stuck with only two options: making it work, or admitting you were wrong. If that’s your perspective, of course you hesitate to start something! Who needs more stuff to hammer away at or be wrong about?

Also, having more ideas allows you to be more zen about each one. Instead of being invested in any particular outcome for any particular idea, you just let them all be what they are and see what happens. That seems very relaxing to me.

What’s the take-away?

• Just try stuff. Try lots of stuff. It’s not a commitment, you’re just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. This way, you let the ideas show you which ones are best instead of trying to guess the answer yourself in advance.
• Throwing away the non-performing ideas is not failure, it’s being smart. If you have lots of ideas going, it’s no problem to throw a bunch away.
• You can get way farther by building your strengths than by trying to improve your weaknesses. This is true of yourself and your projects.

Life is full of possibilities. Give perfection a good kick for me on your way past, and let’s start throwing spaghetti!

Edit: If you’re interested in trying the e-business thing, both The Unconventional Guide to Working for Yourself and Affiliate Marketing for Beginners are involved in a crazy sale here: 23 e-business 2-books for $97! until Dec. 2 at 10 am Eastern time.