In the journey of your profession, the most powerful method is to keep moving. It doesn’t matter if you are crawling, walking, or running. As Martin Luther King, Jr. once said: If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.
We, most of the time underestimate small steps or we fool ourselves by making excuses based on the extent of these steps, it’s a type of procrastination. The power of small inputs to your goal is crucial. Nick Bostrom says:
Take Small Steps
Taking the smallest steps makes a huge difference. We have read the story of a rabbit racing a tortoise many times; the rabbit underestimates the tortoise’s ability to win. But the tortoise doesn’t underestimate his small and slow steps. Underestimating is the enemy of achieving success. I would rather keep moving taking small steps than running and underestimating slow and steady growth.
Seeking Perfection Won't Let You Keep Moving
Seeking perfection is another enemy of starting or even continuing to achieve your goals.
Starting something new is NEW. We have less to no experience in the field. At the initial stage, nobody expects us to produce a perfect product if we don’t expect ourselves. Thriving to produce better products is a healthier goal over trying to produce a perfect product. We will eventually reach that state of perfection but expecting it at the early stages of the production is a barrier that will completely stop you.
I liked to draw. So, I bought all the tools and drew a door. But didn’t share it on my social media channels, as I was insecure about it and wanted it to be perfect before I share it. But years later I realized two things, one that to produce something perfect, you should train yourself to a professional level first. Second, you should start Doing to become a professional rather than Expecting yourself to produce a perfect artwork.
Fear and Insecurities Won't Allow You to Keep Moving
Remember that everybody has a unique set of talents, that can’t be found anywhere else.
A flute is the same instrument made of the same material. But two different humans will produce different sounds playing it. This uniqueness and difference in talents led to the biggest inventions of history.
Inventing new things is a result of starting and the number one barrier against inventions is fear. The fear and insecurities we have, prevent us from starting and portraying the individual uniqueness to society.
I wanted to start this blog a long ago, but my insecurity about my English and fear of judgment wasted a lot of my time. Now that I have overcome my insecurity and fear of judgment, I started this blog.
The way I broke these two barriers is very simple. I learned this during the last few years of learning photography. I was taking horrible photos when I started, worst composition, worst lighting, didn’t know what ISO and shutter speed mean, and a whole lot of other things, I was about to give up. But I didn’t. I watched YouTube videos and took thousands of photos; I eventually saw the result and now I am a considerably good photographer. More about me here.
I started this blog thinking that I will become better and better at writing if I write more. So never let your fears and insecurities prevent you from starting.
Starting today is much better than starting tomorrow.
Tip to Keep Moving
To keep moving forward the most essential method is to set small daily goals of whatever you do; I call them baby steps. Divide your big goal into hundred parts and do a single part of it every day. This way you will be one baby step ahead every day. The key here is consistency.
Let’s suppose you want to write a book of 200 pages which on average has 50000 words. 50000 divided by 100 is equal to 500 words per day. If you write 500 words of your book every day, you will accomplish your goal in a little over three months.
Your goal size doesn’t matter, what matters the most is to keep moving until you reach your goal. Dividing your main goal into many small goals will make it easy for you to achieve everything you want.
Note: This article has around 850 words, it roughly took around 45 minutes of my time to write.
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