These days, there's so much advice out there for too many subjects. How to cook, how to draw, how to approach girls, how to fix a tire; you name it, it's got at least 15 YouTube videos explaining it. What a lot of these videos have in common is that they neglect the most important piece of advice: Getting Started is the Hardest Part.

I'm positive you know somebody who is obsessed with knowing the latest and greatest tactics available. They just can't seem to stop even if the "new" tactic is only 10% different.

With the way we're conditioned at school, this isn't surprising. Teaching kids to raise their hands to ask any question conditions them to ask permission before doing what they want to do.

It's time that people start making their own decisions rather than relying on somebody else to do it for them. Here are a few tips to take getting started from the hardest part to the easier part.

1. Accept the fear of the unknown

No matter how tough you are, no matter how brave, and no matter how experienced, we all have a fear of the unknown. After all, the unknown could be what kills us. However, instead of fearing the unknown all your life, it's much better if you learn to accept that this fear exists.

Getting started is the hardest part solely because we fear the consequences of the unknown. It's natural instinct to be wary of the things we fear.

In this era, though, a lot of our fears are unfounded.

Fear itself is rooted in one thing: death, or the possibility of it. The reason why you have fear of speaking in public is that you don't want to be ostracized by your peers. And in more primal times, being ostracized from the group could lead to death.

When you realize the root of fear and what causes it to flare up, you can counter it. The way you do this is simple: tell yourself that you'll be okay, then act accordingly.

If this means you approach that cute girl, then approach. If this means you bargain for a raise, go for it. If it means you back away calmly, then take one step after the other.

Whatever it may be, it's very unlikely you won't be okay. And those moments where you aren't okay are out of your control since you can't change what led to them, so don't worry about them.

The first step to getting over your hesitation is to accept that the unknown exists and to tell yourself you'll be fine.

2. Have a plan

As the old saying goes, measure twice, cut once. Yet so many people do it the other way around. You end up with some ugly-looking pieces of wood. Preparation is never to be overlooked as it is vitally important to stay on track.

Now, this is no excuse for you to over-prepare. That's just as bad as being under-prepared.

Planning is invaluable, plans are useless. When it comes to productivity, this is the law of the land.

Many people go without plans because of how schools operate. The teachers are the ones with the plan, telling you what to do. It's no wonder that people grow up having difficulty making their own decisions.

As said earlier, over-preparation is just as bad as under-preparation. So how does one avoid over or under-preparing?

Rather than make a rigid plan or schedule, make a framework.

Rather than saying you'll do your reading at 11 am each day, set a time for when you could read, you could meditate, or you could do some work. For example, you set morning time (say, 9 am - 12 pm) to be when you read, meditate, and do some work.

Rather than go in blindly, approach with a plan in mind that has flexibility built in.

3. Bore yourself

Like all great discoveries, I discovered this one by accident. I was having trouble doing any hard work, while at the same time, I was having a hard time doing anything unproductive. It seemed like everything lost its spark. That's what led me to do literally nothing for a day.

Looking back, I ended up overstimulating myself by playing video games for too long. In the end, even the video game I was playing became a chore.

That's when I did nothing for so long that I wanted to work out just to curb my boredom. And that's where my journey began.

Just recently, I've started incorporating fasting into my daily schedule. Originally, I intended for it to be for fat loss, but I've found myself so much more willing to do work while I'm hungry.

I'm no neuroscientist, but from what I've learned from Andrew Huberman, doing things like boring yourself or fasting makes work easier to do because you're detoxing from dopamine.

When dopamine is high, you want to stay in that state rather than do anything that will lower your dopamine. However, over time, your baseline dopamine increases. This means that the things that once gave you such a high of dopamine lose their luster. 

When baseline dopamine gets too high, you need something stronger just to get a hit. This is what happens to drug addicts.

By boring yourself, however, you are effectively detoxing yourself from dopamine. This allows your baseline to come down.

The lower your baseline, the easier it is to do hard work. Rather than skirt away from the pain because it doesn't provide enough dopamine, you tackle the hard work with gusto.

Combined with the "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" nature of dopamine when you're able to do the hard work you actually get more effective dopamine in the long run.

If you find yourself having trouble doing hard work, consider detoxing from dopamine.

An era of overstimulation

In this era, getting started is the hardest part due to overstimulation. We're so flooded by dopamine that the brain doesn't want it anymore.

This is a problem since dopamine is the chemical responsible for motivation. If we don't regulate our dopamine then we won't have proper motivation.

By taking the necessary action to regulate your dopamine, you are setting yourself up for success. Getting started is the hardest part, but once you get started, you won't want to stop.

- Karl