What It Takes To Get There.

Why Do We Start At The Top?

Do you realize how long it’s taken me to write this post? A couple of weeks. I wanted to make sure that everything was how I envisioned it: an image needs to go here, the spacing has to be just right, is my message profound enough, etc. I could add more anxiety inducing thoughts, but I think you get the point. I was never going to make my first move. Only by forcing myself to put the work out there am I getting anything done. Finially!

I love tinkering, but it’s a barrier to action. An excuse, and a place to hide until the moment passes without ever putting anything out into the world. Of course I’m not proposing that we need to hit “publish” on anything and everything, but at some point we must jump off the cliff. This mentality can come in bite size moments like these, or larger ones: starting a business, leaving a unhappy relationship, quitting a job, and so on. I have a hard time with the small stuff but revel in the big leaps.

There is often a disconnect between where we are and where we want to be. When we start something new, our minds are swirling with possibility. We’re in the future: we’ve succeeded, we have a calendar teeming with clients, we are recognized in our field, our opinions are valued, we win. Those are all nice things, but can be really dangerous as we begin our journey into something new. How can we get where we’re going?

Let’s come back to reality for a bit: before we get where we’re going, we have to start. Just start putting things out there! That’s about as basic as it gets, but why is that so hard for us to grasp? I recently read Seth Godin’s new book, “The Practice: Shipping Creative Work” which is a rally cry for this concept. No one is going to tap us on the shoulder and tell us it’s our turn to contribute, to speak up, to create. Trust me, I’ve spent a good portion of my life waiting for that moment. I’m picking myself.

The longer we wait for “perfect” is the longer we sit and do nothing. I’m here to champion the process and not the event. An event is fleeting and implies impermanence while “process” can be infinite. I think this is a concept we all need to be reminded of as we navigate our projects big and small.