
Carl Richards, Behavior Gap
Blunt instruments are special because they suggest to the mind that you can let go of the need for precision. And that, in turn, will allow you to focus more on creating the work and less on critiquing the work. - Carl Richards
If you want to carve an elephant from a block of wood, you don’t start with fine-grit sandpaper. You start with a chainsaw.
Ok, you might start with a chisel and hammer, depending on the size of the wood block. But you get the point. You’d never just start sanding away.
So why would you do the equivalent when it comes to other aspects of life? For example:
-Agonizing over font types before you’ve written the manuscript.
-Designing business cards when you still don’t know what you’re going to sell.
-Eating more super foods when what you should really be doing is cutting out fast foods.
You know what trying to sand an elephant out of a block of wood actually is? It’s daunting. And what daunting means, if you look it up in the Carl Richards Dictionary™, is that you’re probably going to quit before you even start.
You know what trying to sand an elephant out of a block of wood actually is? It’s daunting.
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Can I just be brutally honest here?
The beginning is not the time for fine-tuning.
Come on, people. You know this is true.
Whatever it is you’re trying to do, go grab a blunt instrument and start hacking away!
Blunt instruments are special because they suggest to the mind that you can let go of the need for precision. And that, in turn, will allow you to focus more on creating the work and less on critiquing the work. Which is good since, at this point, the work doesn’t even exist yet! It’s still patiently waiting for you to get started.
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... even surgeons start with blunt instruments.
The opposite of the chainsaw, of course, is the scalpel. You know—that tool surgeons use to make incisions in the human body. But even surgeons start with blunt instruments. Do you know what they ask for before the scalpel? A big, fat, not-capable-of-cutting-human-skin… Sharpie.
All I’m saying is that if it works for the surgeon, don’t you think it might work for you, too?
-Carl Richards
Find more at https://behaviorgap.com/.