The Magic of Starting Fast

Ideas ignite in an instant. The magic happens when you start with the spark.

From Inspiration to Action

Have you ever tracked how long it took you to complete something, from start to finish?

I considered this recently and came to this conclusion: it’s almost always better to shorten the time from first inspiration to final completion.

Here’s the example that prompted this thought.

On a Thursday afternoon, I glanced at an email from someone who informs me about upcoming TEDx talks for which I might consider applying. Because we’re focused on timeliness, I’ll be precise here. This was 2 p.m.

Shortly thereafter, I checked the link to the event site and glanced through their application. Their theme matched a general idea I had for a talk. I decided, in that moment, that yes, I’d like to apply.

Their deadline for applications was the end of the month, which was about three weeks away. So I could sit on this for now and wait until there was a “better time.” After all, I was busy already with a full plate of activities. I did not need one more thing to take on. But for some reason, I decided that no, I would address this sooner. As in, almost right away.

I grabbed my notebook and went to my local coffee place. (You might have one too; it’s called Starbucks. This one is near my house and has a good vibe for my writing needs, so don’t judge me.)

I decided in advance I would brainstorm the talk application and idea for exactly one hour, and then I’d decide what to do based on that.

I want to underline the importance of this first action. At this stage, I wasn’t committed to actually applying. I was just going to brainstorm for one hour and see what came of it.

The 20-Hour Window

I sat down and began writing, and within five lines on page 47 of my journal, an idea hit me—really hit me.

Out of the blue, I thought of a quote that seemed relevant, and almost immediately I tweaked the quote to make it more intriguing. And from there, the whole idea just sprung out of me.

Over the next hour, I wrote in longhand all the different things I could say in this talk. I had the structure of the talk, the personal anecdotes, and an ending. I had a sense that the final talk would be about 9–10 minutes. I’ve given a TEDx talk before (here) that was 18 minutes. This idea didn’t feel like it needed that much time. And the event organizers said they were open to talks of any length. So I was good.

As I went to bed that night, I was pretty clear I would apply, using the content I had brainstormed that afternoon.

First thing the next morning, I typed up the talk idea, molded it into about 300 words, pasted it into the application, and hit send. By 10 a.m., I had applied—about 20 hours after seeing the email that kicked off this journey.

Now I just wait to see what happens. But honestly, that’s out of my hands. I did the work and “shipped” it. Now it’s the Universe’s turn to act.

As a result of this, I’m more convinced of the value of fast action.

There’s energy in taking action as soon as you can.

You can see in my story that I did exactly that. I saw the email alerting me to the opportunity, and I immediately decided to sit down to brainstorm the idea. Within two hours, I was writing down my thoughts. And I was almost instantly rewarded with the quote that became the basis for the whole talk.

Notice what I didn’t do. I didn’t say, “Oh, I’ll get to that someday,” or “I’ll think about it,” or “I’ve got till the end of the month, why rush?” No, I took action immediately.

When Ideas Choose You

I can anticipate an objection to this. What if I hadn’t had time to go write about the idea? What if the idea came to me during work, and I didn’t have the freedom to drop into some random Starbucks and play with it? What then?

In this instance, my approach would be to do as much as I could in the moment. Got five minutes but not an hour? Then brainstorm for five minutes. Make a call. Sketch a design. Research it online. Do something—anything—that moves it forward.

In her book Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the possibility that ideas exist as their own energy. They have will and volition. They seek expression in the world. As an example, she says a book idea that she has may find form in the hands of someone else if she doesn’t act on it in a timely way.

Who knows if this is the case. But if everything is energy—which I believe—then why would our energetic ideas not seek expression via any means possible?

Let’s say that the idea I journaled about on page 47 was sitting out there in the quantum field, waiting to become form. It comes to me in that moment—out of the blue—and then waits for me to act on it. I did. I completed the assignment given to me by this idea. I took it to the next level and then let it go to its next stage.

And now there are people at that TEDx event reading that idea for the first time, and it’s up to them where it goes next.

Bottom line: act when you can. If there’s energy, excitement, or passion around an idea or course of action, don’t waste it. Use that energy. Advance it forward. Shorten the distance from the inception of the idea to its resolution.