Brainhack

20 Just Start

“The art of writing is the art of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.”

Mary Heaton Vorse

How many times have you heard someone say “I've got this great idea for a book/movie/business/product/app/website?” And how many of those people have actually gone ahead and done it?

People can no longer say there's no outlet for their ideas. Anyone can now self-publish, put a video on YouTube, start a website/blog, or get funding on Kickstarter for a product or business idea.

I think the big problem is fear of failure. And fear of failure is like nice dry kindling to the fire of procrastination.

The important thing is to start. It's all about learning on the job. Why do you think entrepreneurs always talk about “failing fast” and writers say, “writing is re-writing”?

Dr Piers Steel of the University of Calgary is probably the world's foremost expert on the subject of putting off until tomorrow what should be done today. In an article he wrote for The American Psychological Association1 he said, “Essentially, procrastinators have less confidence in themselves, less expectancy that they can actually complete a task. … Perfectionism is not the culprit. In fact, perfectionists actually procrastinate less, but they worry about it more.”

“Fear of failure is like nice dry kindling to the fire of procrastination.”

The thing is no one gets it right first time, you learn by doing. What's most important is just to get started and not worry about whether what ...