Here are some useful thoughts from Steven Pressfield's book "Do the Work," which (for now) is free from Amazon as a Kindle book:
"Don’t prepare. Begin.
Remember, our enemy is not lack of preparation; it’s not the difficulty of the project, or the state of the marketplace or the emptiness of our bank account.
The enemy is our chattering brain, which, if we give it so much as a nanosecond, will start producing excuses, alibis, transparent self-justifications and a million reasons why we can’t/shouldn’t/won’t do what we know we need to do.
Start before you’re ready.
Good things happen when we start before we’re ready. For one thing, we show huevos. Our blood heats up. Courage begets more courage. The gods, witnessing our boldness, look on in approval.
You’re allowed to read three books on your subject. No more.
Research can become Resistance. We want to work, not prepare to work.
The creative act is primitive. Its principles are of birth and genesis.
...If you and I want to do great stuff, we can’t let ourselves work small. A home run swing that results in a strikeout is better than a successful bunt or even a line-drive single.
Start playing from power. We can always dial it back later. If we don’t swing for the seats from the start, we’ll never be able to drive a fastball into the upper deck."
Great advice for people--like me--who love the planning phase. I can do mind maps, goal charts, task lists until the cows come home. A little of that is great. Too much of that becomes part of what Pressfield calls The Resistance. Time to start, ready or not!
(Over the years I've learned a lot about how to be more focused and productive and it's all in "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done," published by Pearson and available from Amazon and other booksellers.)
