Starting
I’ve always wanted to write more, a simple goal but one I always fall short of. I want to write to become a better communicator, a better designer and most of all a better person.
Each time I start, I’m excited. I have my carefully selected notebook, my carefully selected pen, I open to a blank page, go to put pen to paper, starting writing and then out of nowhere, it halts.
A moment of hesitation.
Why is the idea starting out so fun? Is it the idea that perfection could be achieved, that everything will work out just as you planned in your head. But then I begin, sometimes I get further than I did last time but then that moment comes where I begin to doubt myself. The moment of hesitation. I read back to myself what I have just written and I realise that maybe instead of heading towards perfection I may be headed the other way.
All the preparation in the world can not prepare you for what reveals itself once you start writing. There’s something that happens when the thoughts in my head suddenly become words on a page. They carry more weight.
Seeming more powerful, more volatile, more final. The start to raise questions like. Is this really how I feel? Does this accurately represent what i’m trying to say?
In my experience as a graphic designer, images are regularly used to set a tone, create a mood, context and communicate with out words. Yet I believe words can be just as powerful, one missed placed word can completely change a sentence, paragraph or a story. The right word can speak for many words, A sentence can hold everything you need to say. How is it a picture can say a thousand words, yet sometimes one word can describe an entire picture.
The pressure becomes more and more evident I continue to write, editing every third word of each sentence, writing and rewriting. I battle through the self doubt and the search for every perfect word and try keep my eyes on the prize.
Finishing.
Staying the course can be the biggest obstacle when it comes to starting, its much easier to turn back and start again.
In his weekly journal, Jim Antonopoulos recently spoke with a friend about the importance of momentum in relation to starting.
He didn’t understand that getting started wasn’t about perfection. It was about moving forward and not standing still. It was about building up a habit, a rhythm and a resilience toward things that will inevitably pop up and try to stop you — and sometimes they will, but you’ll have the fortitude to get back up and keep on going.
As Jim explains when starting anything its important to remember what you are trying to achieve, movement. These first steps are the first of many moving in the direction of the end goal. Its the movement and the momentum where you learn your craft and learn to overcome with obstacles.
Inspired by Jim’s words and my goal to write more, I am writing and filing this, and then I will continue to write in the name of momentum and staying the course.
