The perks of “just starting”

Anxiety is a crippling state to be in. You ask yourself questions: what should I start with? What is the most efficient? Will people like it? What if I have to redo things?

I was inspired to write this by Chanda, who wrote two tweets to tell me how inspiring seeing an idea develop was to her and how she’d been scared to start doing that herself.

I get it, we’re perfectionists. We want to do everything right. We’re tight on time, so preferably, we’d get it right in one go. 

Starting something new always has a learning curve to it. Maybe because you’ve never done The Thing before, or maybe because you’re redoing The Thing and want to do it better this time. 

Instead of saying “just start”, I’m going to give you a couple reasons to just start:

Taking the first (small) step always gets you further than when you’d taken none at all that day. Do this for a longer period of time, and you’re already 5/30/365 steps further than you would have been if you’d kept putting it off until you thought you were “ready”.

Making mistakes is incredibly valuable. Not only do you learn from your mistakes yourself, you get to use that knowledge to educate others as well. Show your journey, either during or after the fact! Regardless of whether education is an ambition of yours – educating others is great for networking, and building an audience for your Thing!

Don’t be afraid to redo the same idea later (and show it off!) Progress memes are popular for a reason. People love to see development. It shows them how far you’ve come, and gives them hope for their own ambitions. 

So, when are you taking your first step?