Just Start: Done Is Better Than Perfect
A reminder to act
It took me a while to take this advice myself. And I still fail to do it sometimes.
For the longest time, I knew I had to stop aiming for perfection (otherwise, I would never get anything done), but the possibility of what I do not being up to standard scared me.
The reality was, the more I waited, the less chances there was of it being up to standard.
We all know that saying: “practice makes perfect”. Then, why do we struggle so much to get things started?
Why are we afraid to do what we are craving to do?
Because we are scared of making mistakes, of being judged for being beginners, of people realizing we are impostors.
Surprise, surprise: if you just started something, you ARE a beginner. And therefore you will act like one. You will not know everything, but you will be on the path to learning it.
Just do it!
Nike is right — you just have to do it.
And there is a study that perfectly explains why.
Jerry Uelsmann, a professor at the University of Florida, divided his film photography students into two groups. One group would only be rated on the number of photographs they took, whilst the other group would be graded for the excellence of their work, through one unique photo at the end of the semester.
At the end of the term, the professor found that the best photos were taken by the first group — this is because of the “law of repetition”.
By having to take multiple photos, the first group experimented with different lights, locations, formats… The second group, however, sat around and discussed how to take the perfect photo.
Unless you take action, you will never have an opportunity to believe in your abilities
— The gift of self-love, by Mary Jelkovsky
This is why you have to start. It literally is trial and error.
Doing will take you to where you have to be
“Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar”
— Antonio Machado
One of my favorite Spanish quotes depicts this perfectly: there is no road, you make your own path as you walk.
You gotta stand up and start putting your feet one after the other.
I used to have a lot of angst about taking that first step.
It was partially perfectionism, but also this pressure I felt to “push through things”, to finish what I had started. Otherwise, I would feel like a quitter.
Things got easier once I realized that what I chose to do or not to do did not define my identity: it was what I decided to stick to.
By giving myself freedom to try and to quit, I was able to unblock myself.
The reality is, you probably will not know how something makes you feel until you try. You have to experience in order to experience the emotions that go through your body: waking up early makes you feel horrible, you struggle through a writer’s block, or you realize that actually you are not an expert in that field.
But also it will make you see the opposite: how good it feels to do an evening walk, what time works best for you to write, and what additional resources you need to look into.
By pushing through the uncomfortable feelings, you can start and figure your way to where you want to be.
You can always change… again
Allow yourself to change your mind, and to not want the life you once wanted anymore.
And also allow yourself to change your mind again and again — to stop pursuing something, only to realize that actually this is what you wanted to do.
“If you’re wondering “what you should do with your life”, it’s likely that you’re in the limbo between realizing you don’t want what you once did, and giving yourself permission to want what you want now “
— Brianna Wiest
You might fear this will make you feel like you lost your time.
But in reality, you have not lost anything — you actually have gained certainty. You have understood that what you once wanted is not actually what you want to continue doing. You would have realized other things that you want to start doing and exploring.
I believe the idea that we are meant to be something forever is not anymore — we are multifaceted, and our lives can take us in several directions.
By rethinking, by looking at other options, you have questioned your own beliefs and have looked at a new direction. You have not wasted anything.
Thank yourself, and keep moving.
