Hey, friend!

I hope this email finds you well.

Today, I’m diving into something I struggle with a lot:

Overthinking
→ feeling overwhelmed
→ not starting
→ becoming a professional procrastinator
→ and regretting not starting sooner.

It's a vicious cycle.

Overthinking my first newsletter

It’s been two weeks since I launched my email newsletter.

I was hoping to have a newsletter written and published the weekend after launching.

But I was stuck overthinking:

• “What do I write about?”
• “I don’t know what to say”
• “What should my newsletter structure be?”

*Looks at all the newsletters I’m subscribed to*

• “Damn, I wish I could write like that”
• “How do they know what to write and what structure their newsletter should be?”
• …

There’s more to the list, but I don’t want to drive you crazy.

Luckily, I didn’t forget to reschedule the “Write a Newsletter” event on my calendar.

Otherwise, without knowing, I’d probably be procrastinating for months or years as I tend to do.

The truth

As you probably know, overthinking won’t set you free.

It’s a trap.

An evil one.

It can happen when you’re trying to

• create or build something,
• start a new venture, or
• do just about anything

It’s easy to fall into the trap of overthinking.

And to not realize what it’s doing to you.

It may look like you’re making sure things are right, but it’s also delaying you from taking action further.

Start somewhere

It's all about taking action.

Beginnings, drafts, rough sketches, wireframes.. they’re not the final product.

They’re a start.

So, start somewhere, and see what happens after.

Start with the tiniest task possible.

• For writing → start with a word.
• For drawing → start with a line or circle
• For exercising → start with a stretch or go for a 1 minute walk
• For filming → hit that record button whether you say a word or not

Even simpler, just show up!

• Open up your laptop and your Word doc or Notion page
• Open up that book
• Wear your workout clothes
• Turn on your camera

This is how I got started with writing this newsletter today.

I started reflecting on how much I’ve been procrastinating this only to realize, it’s me overthinking.

I thought about how it’s gotten me to feeling overwhelmed

Which in turn got me procrastinating writing in the first place.

And the idea of what to write was born!

So if there’s anything you’ve been putting off, chances are you’re overthinking.

And if you are, catch yourself and show up for the thing you’ve been putting off.

Final thoughts

I know my newsletter today isn’t perfect.

It’s not what I had in mind two weeks ago, or any time I've ever thought about newsletters.

But this will always be the newsletter I sat down to write.

Instead of the one I kept overthinking about for another week.

And I know I'll get better over time if I keep going.

I’ll leave you with this excerpt from the book Discipline is Destiny - chapter Just Show Up:

You got this!

You can reply to this email and share your thoughts, lessons, or anything that inspired you this week.

Cheering you on! 🫡

Sora