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The secret of getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain
I delivered another book to my editor yesterday. It now goes through the edit cycle before release. It was due at the end of this month. I delivered early.
Well, sort of. My goal was a delivery on September 27, but the contract says October 29. The problem was my desktop computer cratered and I was forced onto my laptop, which delayed delivery two weeks. So I still got it done earlier than the contract deadline, and I celebrate and take a break. Right?
Well, no. I have another book due on December 31, and have lost fourteen days in which I planned to write it. So last night I started work on that one. Because Twain is right. The way you get ahead is to get started. And every day I put off getting started on it is one less day I have to work on it before the deadline.
You also have to keep going once you have started, but that is a different problem. It is actually an easier one. An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion continues in motion. Newton's principles apply to human activities as well as physics. Once I get started on something, it is easier to keep it going than to walk away from it.
Nor does this apply just to writing books. It applies to any activity: cleaning the dishes, losing weight, setting an exercise schedule, fixing something. In all of these cases the secret of getting ahead is getting started.
Discussion (5)
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I struggle to start doing my taxes every year.
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Congratulations on all the book projects!
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Oh NOW you tell me! :-)
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Seriously, I have always had a bit of a struggle with the "getting started" part. Before starting I tend to think of as many permutations of things that could happen during the project, and want to have contingency plans for all of them before I start the project.
During my professional life, the incentive to earn money and to satisfy clients and bosses spurred me into action.
Since retiring, I find that inertia and the lack of the types of immediate incentives of the professional world call for more overt effort to get started.
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Sometimes referred to as the paralysis of analysis.