When enthusiastic about something, it’s not uncommon to become so bogged down in details to the point that you never quite get around to getting started.

Maybe instead of writing that book you’ve been dreaming up, you spend all your time world-building and outlining. You craft characters so meticulous and fleshed-out that they feel real, but the more effort you put into that before-work, the less attainable tackling the book itself becomes.

Or perhaps you’ve got a great idea for a small business, or a workout plan you’ve been meaning to try out, or a new habit (making a list of all the friends you want to stay in touch with, and then plotting all their names on the calendar as a reminder to give them a call periodically) that you just know will be good for you, but you can’t seem to find a way in; can’t seem to get started.

It can all feel just really big and overwhelming. And these things are important, so starting off wrong, doing it the wrong way, is unacceptable. That would be the death of the dream.

I’ve discovered over the years that, despite regularly experiencing all these same doubts and concerns, that the best solution to the starting problem, the inclination to fiddle around with before-work details instead of getting to work, is to just start.

Like, immediately. Right now.

As soon as you put the first mark on the page, write the first real, actual word in the Scrivener document, plot out the first friend-call (and then make that call), the project feels more real, but also feels a lot more grounded and attainable.

It’s no longer something that you’re thinking about doing, it’s something you are doing.

You’re in the midst of the project, not dreaming about it. And as such, the fear of the unknown dissipates, the impossible scale of a concept unconfined by reality is reduced to concrete dimensions, and your thoughts become a lot more practical: not can I do this, but how best to do this? Not when should I start, but what should I do next?

Over time, you can build up a reflex and default to just getting started. And while this reflex doesn’t make big, hefty undertaking any less big or hefty, it does tend to make such projects seem a lot more attainable because it’s easier to imagine the tangible, in-progress version of things from the get-go, which in turn eases all those before-work hesitations, concerns, and doubts.

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