Just Start (again)

13 Sep Just Start (again)

While I was deep in my blog post archive, I found an unfinished post sitting in my drafts.

It was inspired by an episode of The Daily Creative podcast and was all about giving ourselves permission to start something, even when we don’t know whether we’ll finish it.

Quite fitting, really… considering I’m back here now.

If you’re familiar with my online courses, you’ll know that I often talk about the importance of completing creative projects. When it comes to making videos, there is so much to learn from going through the whole process. Editing teaches you how to shoot more consistently and effectively, and refining the way you shoot can make future edits much easier. Each time you finish something, you understand a little more about what works, what doesn’t and what you might try next time.

I still completely believe in the value of finishing. But the podcast made me think about how often we hesitate to begin because we’re worried we won’t see something through.

We imagine the time it will take, wonder whether we’ll lose interest or worry that the finished version won’t live up to the idea in our heads. Sometimes, before we know it, we’ve talked ourselves out of starting at all.

The episode used Babe Ruth’s baseball career as an example. Now, I know absolutely nothing about baseball, but the point stayed with me. His successes existed alongside many failures. He took lots of swings, and not all of them resulted in something worth celebrating.

Perhaps creativity is a little like that too.

The people who make a lot of things probably also begin a lot of things that never get finished. Ideas are explored, abandoned, reshaped or quietly put aside. That doesn’t necessarily mean the time was wasted. Starting can teach us something or lead us towards another idea or show us that we don’t want to continue after all.

The episode also talked about working on projects in parallel rather than always completing them sequentially, which made me smile because I do this all the time. I often have several videos in progress at once. One might be just an idea, or need more footage, another may be waiting for a voiceover, or slowly coming together in the edit.

Moving between them keeps me interested and gives ideas time to settle. When I get stuck on one thing, I can turn my attention to something else and often return with a clearer sense of what it needs.

Of course, there’s a balance. Too many unfinished projects can start to feel heavy, especially when they become a list of things we think we should complete. But I like the idea that not every beginning has to come with a promise.

You can film the first few clips, write the opening paragraph, gather some photographs or simply try the idea and see what happens.

Perhaps it will create momentum and you’ll finish the whole thing. Perhaps it will become something different from what you first imagined. Or perhaps it will sit unfinished in your drafts (like this!) until you rediscover it a couple of years later and realise it still has something to say.

I suppose returning to my blog is my own experiment in beginning without making promises. I don’t know how often I’ll post or where it might lead. I just know that I felt drawn to come back, so I’m following that feeling and seeing what appears.

The podcast included this quote from Rumi:

“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”

I love that. And I made this last October, as part of my Daily Mantras project.

Is there something you’ve been thinking about beginning? Perhaps you don’t need to know exactly where it will lead or promise yourself that you’ll finish it.

Perhaps you just need to start.

If you’re interested, the podcast episode was “Bambino” from The Daily Creative with Todd Henry.