💪 Do the Hard Thing First: How Early Wins Build Better Businesses

Running a business can feel like spinning plates most days — clients to support, campaigns to plan, emails to answer, content to create. Somewhere in that chaos, it’s all too easy to forget the simple things that keep you centred, focused, and genuinely ready to take it all on.

For me, that “simple thing” is the gym and recently, I realised I’d been letting it slide.

When you’re self-employed; especially in a creative industry, you tell yourself you’ll get to it later. After one more call, one more edit, one more “urgent” reply. But later rarely comes.

And that’s when I remembered something I’ve learned the hard way: The hardest thing to start is usually the most important thing to do.

The Power of Starting Strong

When I train first thing in the morning, everything else clicks into place. My head feels clearer. My motivation comes naturally and I stop carrying around that constant mental note of “I still need to do it.”

That one act - showing up and doing the hard thing first - changes the tone of my entire day.

It’s not about the workout itself. It’s about what it represents: discipline, energy, and forward motion.

As James Clear writes in Atomic Habits:

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

The gym, for me, is part of that system. It’s where I prove to myself, before 8am — that I can do hard things. And once that’s done, the rest of the day feels lighter, faster, more achievable.

The Business Parallel

It’s exactly the same in business.

The “hard thing” might not be a treadmill or a barbell. It might be picking up the phone to a potential client, launching a campaign you’ve overthought for weeks, or finally publishing the post that’s been sitting in drafts.

Most people avoid the uncomfortable stuff. They circle around it with admin, redesigns and tweaks. It feels productive, but it’s really just hesitation in disguise.

Once you lean into the hard thing first — the call, the pitch, the ask — everything else starts to flow. Momentum replaces hesitation.

As author Steven Pressfield put it perfectly in The War of Art:

“The more important a call or action is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will feel toward pursuing it.”

That resistance? It’s not a stop sign — it’s your compass.

Early Wins Create Energy

When you start your day by doing the hardest thing, you give yourself a win before most people have even opened their laptops. That win builds energy — the kind that fuels creativity, confidence and consistency.

In my work with clients at Hue & Helix, I see this play out constantly.

The businesses that grow fastest aren’t always the ones with the biggest budgets or fanciest strategies. They’re the ones that act. That send the email. That launch the campaign even if the logo isn’t “perfect.” That post consistently and learn as they go.

They take the hard step and the next ones come easier.

Turning Intention Into Action

You don’t need to overhaul everything overnight. You just need to start with one thing - the thing you’ve been avoiding - and do it first.

Before the distractions kick in. Before the emails start flying. Before your brain can talk you out of it.

Start there and you’ll be amazed how quickly everything else falls into place.

💬 Final thought: Discipline doesn’t mean doing everything perfectly — it means doing the thing that matters first. Whether that’s hitting the gym, writing the proposal, or making the call, get it done early

and get it out of your mind.

Because once the hard thing’s out of the way, everything else feels a whole lot easier.