The difficult first post! I’ve been planning to write from my experience for longer than I want to admit. I hope over time, that writing down what I’ve learned will become second nature, an extension of my career and leadership journey. Though today, writing is hard.

It’s not for a lack of ideas, I’ve mapped out many topics I intend to cover and give back to the industry that has given me so much. But today writing is difficult, unnatural, the sentences do not flow freely. It therefore seems fitting to talk about the challenge of starting new things.

There are endless articles that do a much better job of covering why it’s hard to start something genuinely new, and how to overcome the fear that prevents us from experiencing new things. But what if the thing you are struggling to start is something you are already good at? Perhaps even paid for?

Why start your passion project?

Take all that skill you have honed, the training and experience you have built up over several years, that you lend to your employer every day, and do the same but for you.

The mobile app idea you had 2 years ago which could have had a hundred thousand downloads by now, the book you meant to write you know would be an instant classic, the side-hustle your friends have been telling you all year you would rock!

The scariest moment is always just before you start.
After that things can only get better
— Stephen King

You’re not alone. Chat to any creative colleague you will find similar stories of half finished or never started projects that could have been the next big thing. So what separates the people who could, from the people who do? For those of us driven enough to give it a shot, how can we shift our mindsets from planning to doing?

There are huge benefits in starting your own passion project. Explore directions you have not been able to go in your professional life, develop new skills and experience you would have otherwise not been exposed to. Even if it doesn’t turn into a business, then you will hopefully have created positive habits that will last you a lifetime and will have reached new contacts and opportunities.

So why haven’t you started yet?

Full disclosure. I am a creative person who has developed and launched incredibly successful products for other people and also have a folder bursting at the seams of half-started and unloved projects that could just be the next big thing…

Even if you are confident in your skills and the quality of your idea, starting something on your own and following your own path without a team having your back is scary! What if it’s not good enough? What if people hate it? Or worse, ignore it?

Overcoming the innate fear associated with starting something new is a significant obstacle and will require a leap of faith.

Finding the time not only to start but to continue putting in the effort to see passion projects through can also be a challenge. We are more time poor than ever before. Adulting, working a 9to5, taking care of kids is enough of a juggle, add unlimited content, socialising, entertainment and devices all vying for our attention, and it is easy to fall into a pattern of “I’m just too busy”.

Okay, Thanks Covid! Let’s Do this!

Don’t get me wrong, there have not been a lot of positives to come out of our current situation, but if you have found yourself at home a lot more than usual, then you have been given an opportunity to make a start on that passion project you’ve put off for so long. If you’ve ever tried (and failed) to get your passion project off the ground you will know that going about things the same way will typically result in the same results. You start with the best intentions, you’re motivated, produce a flash of inspiration, things are looking good! Then inevitably life interjects. You get busy at work, your car needs fixing and your friends just invited you to come out for the 3rd night this week. Your project gets tucked away, and you again quickly fall into unproductive habits, things stagnate until the next flash of motivation (or guilt) strikes you to try again.

Those habits are powerful things. They control much of our day-to-day behaviours both good and bad subconsciously. Snacking in-between meals, turning on Netflix when you feel tired, heading out for a morning run or to the gym at lunch. All habits though follow the same pattern, cue, crave, response and reward and understanding this habit loop, identifying the cues that trigger your habits and the rewards we get from them is the key to harnessing those powerful habits productively.

Charles Duhigg in his book The Power of Habit contends that once you recognise the cues and rewards that drive your habit, you’re halfway to changing it. Try it! Does your negative habit always happen at the same time of day? Is it triggered in a specific location or situation? Take note of how you were feeling at this point. When you notice the habit is happening you can experiment with replacing that behaviour, find a positive alternative that gives the same reward.

Maybe when you head to the canteen to buy that snack or to the bar for a drink, you are actually craving social contact with your colleagues? Perhaps a professional meetup would give you the same reward you are craving?

Start small, build in quick wins

Athletes throughout the ages have used pre-game routines to ready themselves. Put themselves in the right headspace to perform every time, even if today they just don’t feel like it. A set of predefined habits that tells body and mind, “I am here to succeed”. Watch Raphael Nadal as he enters the centre court. Bottles of water lined up perfectly, drinking alternately from each bottle followed by a series of jumps. These rituals have been called superstitions or ticks, but that undersells the power these rituals have to get the player’s head in the game.

Lining up water bottles, towels and rackets, jumping up and down does not increase Raphael Nadal’s ability to play tennis, it does however condition his mind and body to be ready for what comes next. The pre-game routine tells the athlete, “I am ready, I am confident, I am here to win”. Performing the same actions in the same order each time conditions their mind and body to perform.

James Clear writes a great article on constructing your own pre-game routine. The trick it appears, is to start with a task that is so small, so easy that you can’t say no. Then build from that first step towards your goal. Pour a glass of water, tie on your running shoes, pack your day-bag the same way each time. This has the effect of readying us for the game or task, making sure our minds know performance is expected.

Start now!

For my own journey, writing this piece is my start, creating accountability in myself by sharing this online is my first step. I’ll continue to write more about my own product journey, the good, bad and ugly.

It doesn’t matter when we start.
It doesn’t matter where we start.
All that matters is that we start.
— Simon Sinek

So next time you are feeling motivated, resist the urge to turn on Netflix and instead ponder What if, “What if it’s spectacular?”, “What if it’s the start of something exciting? Possibly even life changing?!”. And then start immediately! You can’t bottle motivation, it’s fleeting, so start now.