103 How to start anything

What do you do when you don’t do what you want to do? In this episode, Leary and Armin talk about how to start anything.

This week’s Inspire Me quote is from Don Shula:

“The start is what stops most people.” 

In this episode, Leary and Armin discuss how to start the ideas we resist—even if we don’t want to. They compare ideas to bumble bees, partitioned hard drives, and dying loved ones, and share some practical suggestions on how we can retrain the way we approach and activate ideas.

Quotes from the show:

• “The problem is, when you find yourself resisting the very idea you want to implement, it starts to make you question, ‘What’s wrong with me?'” —Leary


• “It’s so much easier to procrastinate and justify your procrastination on stuff that you don’t like doing.” —Leary


• “I have to mourn a loss [of an unfinished idea] to birth a new [idea]. Sometimes it’s hard to let something go.” —Armin


• “When I see how many things I’ve started and never finished, I eventually look at the next thing to start as another thing to fail at.” —Armin


• “I [often] find I may not want to start something because I’ve got so many other things that I’ve started and haven’t quite finished yet. What ends up happening, … is [I hold] an idea hostage because [I] haven’t finished other stuff.” —Leary


• “I’m not advocating that we not finish ideas; I am advocating that [we] not punish [ourselves] … and [realize our] next idea might be a better idea than the idea [we’ve] been working on. It could be worth trading up for.” —Leary


• “The question is, ‘In the idea that you want to pursue, what are [you] willing to guard and protect?'” —Leary


• “If you keep bombarding yourself with all those reasons not to do something, eventually, you stop being creative at all.” —Leary


• “Sometimes the idea that you write down needs time for your brain to think on it awhile before you act on it. And that allows you just to incubate it. If you still have the same energy to pursue the same idea several days later—then it’s worth pursuing.” —Leary


• “If you have a to-do list, you have a get-nothing-done list. That’s all a to-do list is. If you actually want to get something done, schedule it.” —Armin

This week’s Challenge Me:

Pick an idea. Write it down. Incubate it. Then post it somewhere where you’ll see it and start working it.

What are some other ways you have found helpful in motivating yourself to start working an idea you previously resisted? Share your thoughts and comments with us below.

Resources mentioned in or related to this podcast that may be helpful to you:

• Episode 20: “3 Strategies to supercharge your productivity.”


• Episode 70: “How to beat procrastination.”


• Bob Newhart “stop it” video.