Thank you brain! But try that shit with someone else.
Present Principle: On the moment after you ship the Thing and how to talk back to our own Resistance
Something predictable happens every time, the second after I hit Publish on anything.
I can feel good about a piece all week. Confident, even. Then I click the button, and the voice shows up almost instantly:
Wait, are you sure? Does this even make sense? Is this good enough? Who are you to even try this? Are you actually allowed? This might be very bad!
The moment the Thing leaves my hands and becomes visible, the doubt arrives right on schedule, like it was waiting. The stronger the voice, the more important the Shipping was.
I’ve shipped enough uncomfortable, slightly embarrassing things over twenty years to finally recognise that voice. It’s Resistance, and saying this is its whole job.
It makes sense that it's there. It's evolution. For most of human history, standing out was dangerous. In a small tribe, being seen, being different, risked getting pushed out, and that meant you didn't survive. So the brain still flinches every time you put yourself in front of people. It thinks it's protecting you.
And this is what makes it a trap. On paper, the voice isn’t even wrong. It probably would be safer not to hit publish. But the real risk isn’t shipping the uncomfortable Thing. The risk is not shipping it. If you have any ambition at all, any wish to grow, then playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do.
So I stopped arguing with the voice, and I stopped believing it. I do what you do in meditation instead. You notice the thought. You label it. You let it pass without holding on. Ah. There it is. Thanks, brain. I see what you’re trying to do. Noted. I’m good.
And then, the line I actually say to it now:
Try that shit with someone else.
It works because it’s so obviously a bluff. I’ve heard it a thousand times. I don’t buy it anymore.
The voice is loudest right before you start. You look at the thing on your list, the one you’re dreading, and the brain instantly produces ten reasons to do it later. The move is almost embarrassingly simple. Don’t think. Open the document. Press record. Take the first small step before the mind can talk you out of it.
Ray Bradbury put it best. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. My friend Sari Azout reminded me of that line on my podcast, and it stuck, because thinking is exactly where the doubt lives. Action is the way out of the loop.
There is a whole book on this that I recently read and highly recommend, Joseph Nguyen’s Don’t Believe Everything You Think, and the heart of it is simple: the thoughts causing the suffering aren’t facts. They are just thoughts.
The voice will be back next time I publish anything, and that’s fine. It doesn’t mean I did something wrong. It’s just the tax on doing something that matters to me. So I’ll notice it, thank it for the warning, and ship the Thing anyway.
This Present Principle is part of the upcoming framework and book I’m writing to help as many people as possible. It’s called Stop Postponing Yourself: Do The Thing. A Modern Maker Manifesto and is now available for pre-ordering. There are still a few spots left for the Early Bird Offer.
If you want to join a supportive group of 267 Modern Makers from all around the world, check out our Present Space. We are meeting in the Consistency Club every two weeks to talk about the bliss and struggles of getting closer to our Favorite Unrealized Projects.