What I’ve Got

It can be useful to embrace your limitations when you feel stuck, uninspired, or unable to make any progress on some task or undertaking.

Sometimes you’re missing what feels like a vital component or data-point, and the slow-down is related to that lack of a fundamental tool or possibly necessary information.

Sometimes the array of options you face is so sprawling and varied that homing in on the ideal next-step feels overwhelming or impossible.

Sometimes the weight of the task—its bulk, its meaning, the amount of time it will likely take to finish—freezes you in place with its psychological heft.

Artificial constraints can make it easier to get started despite these hindrances, and that start can make the true complexities and problems you face clearer, while also shining a light on the other things (data, tools, time) you might want to acquire or set aside to pave your (more evident) path toward your (better defined) destination.

One constraint I find to be reliably useful is trying to solve the problem, make the thing, or accomplish the task using only what I’ve got right now, sans any new acquisitions or investments.

This might mean I start writing using only pen and paper or the text editing program that came with my computer (rather than getting bogged down researching the best fancy app for the job) or diving into a research project using only the notes I’ve already collected.

It might mean using the physical tools I have on hand to build or repair something—and earnestly trying to make it work with just the creative use of those tools—or figuring out a way to learn what I need to know from my existing network of relationships, contacts, and resources.

The idea is to take practical steps toward where I think I need to go, immediately, as the simple act of getting started and setting out on a journey changes one’s perspective on any undertaking.

In some cases these constraints will result in an actual, usable solution, and that solution might be better (or different in any interesting way) than what you would have come up with using a more sophisticated toolbox of gizmos.

More often, these constraints will make clear what you need with intense (and perhaps horrible) specificity, clearing your mental list of “maybes” and replacing it with a concise, confident collection of “definitelies.”

At times, this act of just starting will illuminate the uncomfortable fact that the solution you had in mind wasn’t even addressing the right problem (or aiming at the proper outcome), and you’ll be able to recalibrate your compass and start over, headed in a more ideal direction for your intended outcomes, rather than wasting more time preparing for the wrong thing.

The idea isn’t to do an important job in a haphazard fashion, it’s to acquire practical knowledge about a subject or issue that until that point has been mostly or entirely theoretical.

This real-world wisdom tends to clear the fog, spark ideas, and kick one’s internal motivation mechanisms into gear, as it feels like (and is) actually doing something—which in some cases, for some flavors of uncertainty, can be all you need to understand the shape of what you face and the substance of what you need to do next.

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