Getting Started

...and why it sucks

They say that breaking up is hard to do, but it's not nearly as difficult as getting something started in the first place. Breakups usually have some momentum behind them already. Some are even inevitable to outside observers. Starting something new, regardless of the undertaking, is almost always viewed with skepticism from external sources and doubt or hesitation internally. Whether you're going back to school, starting a business, beginning a new fitness regimen (especially one that includes squats, sweat, and actual work), or moving to a new city, starting is scary.

And there are some very good reasons for this. Deep-seated reasons for the hesitation to actually start. Besides our baseline Neolithic aversion to anything different or out-of-the-ordinary, starters have to fight through a whole host of psychological quirks and roadblocks that make the modern man (or woman) so bad at getting started. (WARNING: TED talk + Wikipedia links ahead) It might be because we're afraid of failure in the deeply animalian part of our brain. It might be because the gratification from sharing goals is sufficient to offset the stress induced by deadlines on those same goals. It might be because we've failed to internalize the rewards from previous starts, and we consider ourselves imposters among our current or future peers. There's no lack of reasons for a lack of starting.

But what do we do about it? Should we care? I think we should care when people us tell us we're crazy, and we should listen carefully to their objections. But those objections should not be internalized as reasons not to do a thing. Rather, they should be seen as a product of due dilligence: every objection you face from folks at the start ought to have a response that you (and only you) find satisfactory. Eventually, your responses to these objections will become the selling points to get your butt off of the couch and into the fray. And your responses to these objections might only be satisfactory to you, according to your individual priorities. And that's OK at the start.

We'll certainly talk more about how to measure success once you're up-and-running, and external validation will play a key role in that. But when you're getting started on something, the hardest battle to fight is internal. Then you can deal with the haters.