Start More Than You Can Finish by Becky Blades

An Idea I Can Get Behind

Welcome to the first of many book reviews focused on resources that help feed our creative spirit. I started with Becky Blades’s “Start More Than You Can Finish” because I found the title intriguing. It contradicts what we were taught when we were kids. Growing up, we were told, “Don’t start what you can’t finish!” And if we start unfinished projects, we don’t return to them because we figure that ship has sailed, and what’s the point? But Becky Blades’s book gives us the motivation and knowledge to embrace our “stARTist,” someone who “takes creative initiative to start, restart, reinvent, or renew.” It’s the only way to set our creative spirits free and realize we “…are not the sum of our failures…,” but rather “…we are the curiosities we chase…” and those “curiosities” can become something spectacular.

Get Excited About Getting Started

So Much Inspiration!

This book is packed with insights. If it gets overwhelming, take a break from the included exercises or start a new project. You’ll find many ideas to ignite your creativity, organize your thoughts, or collaborate on something fresh.

You Got This

Whatever your creative plans for 2023, this book will help motivate you to implement them. But before you begin, think about whether you’ve started something or are just stalling. In Chapter 6, Becky highlights three key activities: talking, researching, and planning. She explores how these can either lead to procrastination or help us progress.

1. Check in with yourself and stay accountable for your actions or inactions to keep moving forward.
2. Discuss your ideas to gain feedback or assistance rather than to impress others.
3. Plan to organize schedules and resources, not as a way to procrastinate until perfection is achieved.
4. Research should inspire and clarify. It should not be used just to check an idea’s uniqueness. Or to justify not pursuing it because of cost or size.

Good luck to you, and remember, “Starting is a skill. And like any other skill, it can be learned, practiced and mastered…”.