The Order is Irrelevant
There’s this book The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki that I started reading in February of 2016. At the time, a “lack of starting” on various creative endeavors was the problem that I wanted to solve, so that was the book I selected. It seemed fitting. It’s been 356 days and I still haven’t finished it.
Not to mention, I’ve got a ton of books on my “to-read” list. No seriously, it’s endless. I would buy them or borrow them and they would sit on my shelf because I wanted to finish reading The Art of the Start first before getting started on the others. I’ve since realized this is insane.
Over the past few months, I’ve started to realize that often the full picture of what you want things to look like only truly starts to come together when you’ve started sketching it. In other words, when you’re in the moment. It’s then that you’re able to refine until it feels right. But having something concrete to work with helps tremendously. The real-time feedback of what’s working and what isn’t is useful for anyone that wants to create.
Don’t let the order in which you want things to happen prevent them from happening at all.
Now I don’t want to minimize the importance of proper planning. I don’t want to trivialize the real mental and emotional hurdles it takes to get started. It takes planning to do really big, great things. But you’ve got to start small. You can surprise yourself when you just start. It’s the best way I’ve found so far to help get out of your own way.
In 1932, Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic ocean. She was the fastest, youngest and first to do a lot of things in her career. She once said that “the most effective way to do it, is to do it”.
You don’t get to be the first person to do much of anything if you wait around planning what you’re going to do. While you’re planning, you could be acting. Muster the courage to act on your inspiration.
I only recently realized how ironic it was that I wanted to read a book about “starting” before getting started. It’s been shelved indefinitely. (No offense, Guy).
Creating is as much about experimentation and failure than anything else.
So go create. Do it now.
Onward and Upward.
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Brent is Co-Founder of People + Words, a content marketing and copywriting company with story, data and strategy at the center.
