Start Quietly! Not Today Blog 34

You have a good idea? Keep it for yourself and start quietly.

Most Things Don’t

There are things in life that you should be good at before you do them. For most things, this is not the case. Sometimes your bold idea should be approved by another person before you put it into action. With most ideas, this is not the case. Sometimes your dream should be communicated before you pursue it. For most dreams, this is not the case.

I love to talk openly about things I have planned for myself, but some ideas hit the wrong people. It’s rarely conscious, but their candid opinions can change the way I see things. Rarely to the better.

It often results in putting off dreams.

Dare To Try

How can I know if I want to do something if I don’t do it?

Too often we quit because we get scared, bored, influenced. This is bad enough. Motivation or energy is not a switch, it’s momentum. Do we make a decision or our fears?

Yes, life is short but it’s also long. Long enough to do really put in the work and see how things progress.

Make 100 creations BEFORE you have a big audience. Every “overnight” success I’ve ever seen was preceded by years of relentless, and sometimes unappreciated, hard work.

Kevin Kelly

Still, at least we tried. It is valuable to know what you don’t want to do and we’re gaining experience.

And then there are those things that we never even get to start. We are throwing away the chance to find fulfilment. Our expectations are so high that we think we’re not good enough to start.

Again, it’s our fear, or being uninformed. Or worse, others.

External Factors

I realised that for myself. There’s a limit of how many “are you sure that’s a good idea?”, I can take.

I don’t have a problem telling people that I’m about to do something crazy. But it’s the small things that I often put off because I think about other people’s opinions.

It is not easy to tell your fear to shut up. But you can shut up. And that’s an easy way to bypass external factors that get in the way of you starting something. Doing it first and then talking about it has made a massive difference for me.

Rubbing Noses

I love to be creative.

I have not discussed with anybody that I am going to be a blogger. In fact, I have told only a handful of people about this blog. I wanted to find out about this new world and not put it off because somebody tried and failed, or somebody who thought it was a waste of time. So, I thought ok let’s start quietly.

Now, 34 blog posts in I’m still not rubbing it under people’s noses. I want to be sure that I can be good at it and that I’m in for the long run. This requires practice and experimentation.

Again, I am not jumping in a boat and suddenly start rowing across the Atlantic Ocean without telling anybody. It’s the little things that make so much sense to me, but that I probably couldn’t even explain clearly. A video or a blog post.

Why Not Today?

I know there are little things you would like to try but for whatever reason have not done. Pick one of these little things. One that you haven’t talked about with your friends, or haven’t talked about for a while and just do it.

Why not today?

Who cares if you embarrass yourself a little, chances are your friends won’t even find out. Start quietly, it’ll be fun, I promise.

D