You can just do things

A good friend said this to me when I was afraid of failing.

He followed it up with the pigeons in the park are free; you can just take them home.

The world is often much simpler in real life than it is in my imagination. Most of the complexity comes from trying to avoid failure because of things which happen to be beyond our control.

Why I needed to hear it

Often, I get in the way of myself by imagining intricate details about problems that do not even exist in the first place. I do this to make an informed choice about what I am getting myself into, but often this becomes an exercise in and of itself and keeps me from doing what I originally set out to do.

The ways in which I distract myself from the original goal are quite intricate. Sometimes, I spend a lot of time figuring out the best way to learn / approach said new-thing. Sometimes, I spend time figuring out the best equipment I need to buy in order to succeed. Sometimes that I am so married to the idea that I am not a person who does x that I cannot even begin to coprehend that I want to do x.

Now none of these are bad things to know before starting something new, but to spend an unusually large amount of time just thinking about doing something is not doing the thing. This is far more sinister because in my head, it does feel like I am doing something towards my said thing. This is busy work that is keeping me from doing actual and meaningful work.

The messaging outside that is available for beginners is also very confusing. For example, the advice that was out there for people looking to buy their first bicycle is staggeringly bad. People often get caught up in distracting questions like can I upgrade this particular part once I outgrow this, or can I on this bike, etc. I also went through this phase. What really helped me navigate this was a blog-post from the bicycle company called surly. I am linking it here.

What this post does is it systematically answers all questions that one might have before they purchase a bicycle (not necessarily their first one). The entire argument can be distilled into you can just do things.

Anyway, that is the reminder: you can just do things.

your-friendly-neighbourhood-doer-of-things