The Art of Getting Started

aka The Domino Effect

I love to procrastinate. This newsletter is living proof - I registered with Substack in June this year and it has taken me five months to hit ‘Publish’.

We have all experienced this at some point, whether you wanted to start a large project at home or a side-hustle which you have been passionate about.

I joke about procrastination, but there are bigger things at play here. Sometimes, I fail to break down the big rock into smaller fragments, so overwhelm takes over. Other times, it’s my dear friend Imposter Syndrome which stops me in my tracks.

Sometimes when I do get going, the nuanced complexity and enormity of everything starts to unfold. Getting bogged down with any craft that demands patience is so easy when you are surrounded by 5-second Shorts and 10-second Reels.

Enter, the Domino Effect.

When I was little, I loved playing with dominoes. But not in its’ traditional sense like our grandparents probably enjoyed playing. I focussed on the arrangement, knocking and admiring the beautiful art of destruction.

When people talk about the Domino Effect, they are referring to this sort of a chain reaction. And usually the dominoes are of the same size here.

Dominoes are much more powerful than I ever imagined. There was a study in 1983 where physicist Lorne Whitehead demonstrated how dominoes can actually knock down things about 1.5 times their size. The bigger the domino in the chain, the knock-down impact just multiplies.

Professor Stephen Morris showed this to us in 2009, where he setup a chain of dominos of increasing sizes which made a mechanical chain reaction that started with a tiny push and knocked down an impressively large domino. The first domio was 5 millimetres tall, and the last one was three feet tall.

If my mathematics is correct, it would take approximately 32 progressively larger dominoes to knock over a domino the size of Burj Khalifa. Yikes!

So what’s this got to do with us getting started with something new?

It tells us that we need to find a really small thing to get us started and get the chain reaction going.

The domino effect has taught me how to overcome two main challenges:

a. How to get started

b. How to not get bogged down

The domino effect helps me find courage. Once you start and stay consistent, you are left with only one problem to solve - Imposter Syndrome. But let’s deal with that some other day.

Key takeaway steps:

1. Find the first domino. Start with something small.

   Write that first page.

   Make that high-level plan.

   Start your journey in public.

   Brainstorm your idea with a friend.

2. Callout the last domino. Write down the goal.

   $$ revenue?

   100 subscribers?

   A published book?

   Completed portfolio website?

3. Assign guardrails. Ensure you don’t slip.

   Journal your progress.

   Have an accountability buddy.

4. Create a community.

   Build a network.

   Publish your ideas.

   Attract critical feedback.

5. Hire a coach or mentor.

   Avoid burnout.

   Keep your focus.

   Celebrate small wins.

Your complexities will change, projects will take a detour, and imposter syndrome will come and go. Keeping that growth mindset from when you start is the key.

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Thank you and always rooting for your success! 😊

Zubin

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