starting

I like to plan. A few points in a list, a few ideas, a few risks, and I’m all set to create something, start something.

Sometimes it’s best to just get on with things – take ‘massive immediate action‘ and really go for it.

The right action at the right time is no effort at all. Things fall into place and it is as if it was ever so. Consider wu wei and tzu-jan, always.

“The wise lead the people by following behind.
When the task is accomplished and the work done”

“the people all say:
‘it happened to us naturally’.”
Tao Te ching¹, verse 17

I experience mental blocks around some of my work. I’m good at planning, I’m good at starting things, and I’m less enthusiastic about finishing things. I hear that a good team should include a ‘finisher’, and I can see why.

My mental blocks hold me back from returning to a project or piece or work. I fear the amount of work I need to do again, and fear being unable improve my initial offering. I avoid starting on this second phase of work.

In reality, once I get into the second phase it’s never as scary or bad as I feared. My mental blocks waste countless days, yet had I simply begun I could’ve completed the work in no time.

“Approach the difficult while it is still easy.
Deal with the big while it is still small.
The difficult tasks of the world
must be handled by starting what is easy.
Great undertakings must always start with what is small.”

“Therefore, the sage never strives for the great,
thus they achieve greatness.”
Tao To Ching¹, verse 63

¹Version: Kari Hohne

Image credit: qtouch