The Heart To Start: Stop Procrastinating & Start Creating

by David Kadavy

7 That Which Pulls You Through

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“Generosity is an excellent antidote to fear. If you’re doing this on behalf of someone you care about, the fear takes a back seat.”

III Winning by Beginning

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8 The Fortress Fallacy

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I call this the Fortress Fallacy, because it’s as if we imagine that we will build a giant fortress when we’ve never laid a single brick in our lives. We want to open a Michelin-star restaurant, but we still haven’t gone past microwave nachos. We want to write a novel, but we’ve never written anything longer than a quick email.

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As a result, one of two things happens: Either we do nothing more than fantasize, and never start, or we do start, but we lead ourselves into burnout.

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To overcome the Fortress Fallacy, all you have to do is recognize that you tend to dream beyond your current abilities. Don’t let your own dream intimidate you into not starting, or lead you into burnout when you do start.

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Dream of a Michelin-star restaurant, but start with a dinner party. Dream of a novel, but start with a short story. Dream of a feature film, but start with a short film. Instead of building a fortress, start with a cottage.

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9 Inflating the Investment

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When you Inflate the Investment, you prevent yourself from starting in the moment because you assume it’s too big a commitment. You assume you don’t have enough time. As a result, you cause yourself to procrastinate with something that’s a smaller commitment.

The thing that keeps you from reading the book instead of scanning Facebook is Inflating the Investment. Reading the book feels like a big commitment. It feels like you won’t get much out of it unless you have a solid block of time. But you can scan Facebook for one minute, or you can scan Facebook for a couple of hours. So it’s easy to choose Facebook over reading.

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10 The Linear Work Distortion

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All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. —Chuck Close

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calendar. I knew that if I wrote today, I could make that writing better tomorrow, and I’d still be on schedule. I was free to create in the moment.

The Linear Work Distortion is the false belief that creative work is a neat, step-by-step process, wherein the final product steadily reveals itself. In fact, that’s not how creative work really happens. It’s often messy, and iterative.

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To overcome the Linear Work Distortion, get a feel for your process by creating whatever comes easiest to you. You already know that you should start small so the Fortress Fallacy doesn’t hold you back. So you should be able to complete smaller projects without getting overwhelmed. As you learn the process that works for you, adapt that process to your plan of execution as you attempt larger projects.

11 Permission to Suck

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None of that would have happened if I hadn’t given myself Permission to Suck.

We fool ourselves into procrastinating by exaggerating how much time we really need. We create mental blocks by imagining our work will follow a linear progression.

If we never get started, we never get good, and you can’t get good without first being bad. To overcome perfectionism and get started, you need to accept that your first attempts will not be up to your standards. You have to give yourself Permission to Suck.

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12 Motivational Judo

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Art is a lie that helps us understand the truth. —Pablo Picasso

13 Crack the Whip

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Because it doesn’t happen like that. You do things in little bits and pieces. You start off small, and you get bigger and bigger.”