Doing Small Things

I often have a tendency to procrastinate on building things because I feel that the final product won't live up to my imagination. In my head, an idea is perfect and protected. But making it real forces me to compromise on my standards and acknowledge that people may not respond as I'd like them. So it can be hard to make an idea concrete, because it requires shattering my expectations and facing my limitations.

But an idea is just that, an idea. We can't affect the world, or help the people around us, just from an idea. As the entrepreneurial advice goes, "Ideas are cheap, execution is everything."

Taking the first concrete step, no matter how small, is crucial to stop us from overthinking. After the first bit of an idea is brought into reality, we no longer have any delusions about its perfection, our creation is grounded in front of us.

Do small things. Write the first line of code, read the first page of that book, draw the first line of your sketch. Today, I made this unfinished website and wrote this short post.

If your standards are a cause for procrastination, lower them. Embrace the messiness, sloppiness, and incompleteness of whatever you do. Just take the first step. Do something small.

Here's to more building, creating, and doing, however messy and incomplete it may be.