Ahh, the feelings that come with starting something new. Whether it’s a relationship or a job, there is an excitement and a mystery that comes with new beginnings. It can be intoxicating or it can be terrifying. It can get you up in the morning, or it can make you feel like hiding under the covers.

However you respond to new beginnings in your life and career, there are some foundational skills you want to have in order to launch this new entity with success and joy. If you don’t have these tools in place, it will be very difficult to get your new project off the ground.

But before tell you some of my favorite tools for starting something new (I’ve got so many; it was hard to choose just 4!), first let me give you some examples of what launching something new can encompass:

•    Program that you’re teaching
•    Business
•    Career
•    Job
•    Team Members
•    Relationship or Friendship
•    Exercise Routine
•    Marketing Plan
•    Work of Art
•    Community Organization
•    Etc.

And without further ado, here are 4 of my favorite Soul-Centered Secrets for Launching ANYTHING:

1) Get Excited about Your New Project: I know this might seem obvious, but think about how many times you set off to do something new, and it felt heavy, or stressful, or you just felt so-so about it. Not too much positive energy there, right?

If you aren’t excited about your new business or relationship or team member, then it will be very challenging to feel energized and spring into intentional action to move it forward. So here’s what I recommend: see if you can get excited about this new thing you’re embarking on. Make a list of all of the things about it that make your heart sing. If you come up with enough to help you shift your attitude around it, great! If not, then it’s time to reconsider if this new venture is aligned for you.

2) Institute a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Policy Until You Feel Confident: Now, don’t get me wrong. I LOVE telling family and friends and colleagues and clients about all of the new juicy things I’m up to. I love getting support and bringing folks into the picture with me. However, here’s what I’ve found to be true, both for myself and for many women I’ve worked with: if you let others in on your new program or budding relationship or book idea too soon, you leave yourself vulnerable to unintentional criticism or fear or doubt before you yourself are feeling fully confident in your new thing.

Instead, what I recommend is keeping your news to yourself until you feel strong enough and excited enough about it that Aunt Sally telling you you’re crazy from moving from corporate to not-for-profit won’t feel like an earthquake hit.

3) Be Honest with Yourself about your Fears: Starting something new is scary. Plain and simple. As my clients often hear me say – Fear is PART of the process of up-leveling and moving forward. That’s just how it is. What’s important is how you handle your fear: do you ignore it? Run away from it? Let it sabotage you? Or, are you willing to acknowledge and face your fears so that you can move past them?

Being able to do this is key to soul-centered success in anything you do.

4) Skip Towards Something New Instead of Running Away from Something Old: Whether it’s a new relationship or a new job or teaching new subject matter or a new diet, you want to make sure that you’re starting it for the right reasons. The right reasons can be: because you are excited, because you feel passionate about it, because it makes your heart sing, because your intuition is telling you it’s right.

The #1 wrong reason for launching something new: because it allows you to leave or run away from your current situation.

In other words, you want to move to a new city because you LOVE this new city, not simply because you hate where you are right now. Or, you want to launch a new group program in your business because you are so psyched to do it; not because your current group program simply isn’t working.

Of course: get out of the relationship or job or situation that isn’t working for you. But don’t run onto the next thing simply because the current one is mis-aligned. If you do this, you might find yourself running away again pretty soon thereafter.