Why “Just Start” is Bad Advice

I wanted to start a blog back in 2006. I didn’t know where to start. I agonized for months over “big decisions,” like what platform to use: I vacillated between Typepad and WordPress, then wondered if I should use Blogger. Which hosting company should I use? How do I choose a theme?

All of these were cover for my real concerns:

I didn’t have time. I didn’t have a niche. I didn’t know what to write about. What was the purpose of it anyway?

It took 7 years for me to take the first step by starting this blog, which I did on August 30, 2013.

I still didn’t have a niche, or the time, or know what to write about. But I was determined to “just start.” I picked a web host and I used one of the built-in WordPress themes. I wrote an intro post and I was off.

I had started.

Fast forward: Yesterday I published my 1,500th blog post.

I’ve come a long way.

Here’s a secret: I still don’t “have the time,” a niche, or know what to write about.

What I have is a commitment to myself to use this space as a place to experiment, play, add value to others, and, perhaps most important — a place to practice taming perfectionism and the inner critic.

Don’t get me wrong: I hope that what I share here makes a difference to others — and I know it does.

But first and foremost this is a place for practicing done over perfect, good enough, incompleteness, and all the other things my high achieving inner critic hates.

And somehow, I get it done. It’s become part of my routine. Not a habit, because, trust me… nothing about this is automatic or unconscious. I find a way to fit it in.

Sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I had started back in 2006 — before I was ready, before I had all the answers.

The joke is that I still don’t feel ready and I still don’t have all the answers. Though I have some.

You might think the lesson here is to just start. That’s the advice everyone gives, and it can be good advice for certain types of projects.

But not for something like this.

“Just starting” wasn’t enough. After the first post here, I didn’t post again for 3 months. It took me 4 years after starting to realize that if I really wanted to make a difference — I’m my game with the inner critic and in the lives of readers who find their way here — I had to be consistent with my blogging efforts. For me, that meant turning it into a daily practice.

In the same way that a tree requires consistent watering to flourish and thrive, so too anything we want to grow requires consistent care and nurturing over time.

We create results in life not by what we start but through what we can sustain.

That’s the real challenge here, and that’s the game: how to make it sustainable over the long term.

It’s the game I play with my daily Fitness First ritual, with my daily meditation practice, and with my blog. It’s the game I love to play to help others turn what they start into a sustainable practice.