An Experiment in Doing

An abstract depiction of personal transformation and overcoming self-doubt. A silhouette of a person dissolves into flowing words and ideas, symbolizing the shift from hesitation to creativity. The background features a blend of warm, inviting colors with a glowing central light, representing inspiration and a breakthrough moment. The dreamy, surreal style evokes a sense of limitless possibility and new beginnings.
Nigel Holder
Nigel Holder

As time passes and I get older, I find myself reflecting on the boxes I haven’t checked off. This blog was one of them—something I’d thought about for a long time but never acted on. Now, I’ve written a few articles and have more drafted, which I’ll be releasing over the next few weeks.

The main point of this post is to highlight the shift in mindset that allowed me to finally take this step.

The Thought Patterns That Held Me Back

Before I could move forward, I had to recognize the thoughts that were keeping me stuck:

  • People are going to read my stuff.
  • I'm not a good writer.
  • My perspective doesn't matter.
  • It's all been done before.
  • I don’t have time.

If you’ve ever told yourself any of these, take a moment, look in the mirror, and give yourself a (metaphorical) slap. I'll wait.

Alright, now that we’re back, let’s talk about how I reframed these thoughts.

The Mindset Shift That Got Me Started

People are going to read my stuff.
No one I know will find my writing unless I tell them. And even if they do, so what?

I'm not a good writer.
There are way worse writers than me, and they still put their work out there. Plus, writing is a skill—I can always improve.

My perspective doesn’t matter.
It doesn’t have to matter to be shared. It’s just one of billions, and that’s okay.

It’s all been done before.
True, but if one solution worked for everyone, we wouldn’t have so many tutorials and perspectives.
Besides, life itself has been "done before"—we all wake up, eat, sleep, and repeat. That doesn’t make it any less worth experiencing.

I don’t have time.
We do have time—it just gets filled with things that feel urgent but aren’t important.
For example, I could be doing the dishes right now or writing this. Will I die if I put those godforsaken dishes off until tomorrow? Probably not.

A Note on AI and Writing

To be 100% transparent, I’m leveraging AI to cut down on typing for some (okay, most) of these articles. That raises questions like, Is this really my blog? Are these really my articles?

To that, I say: Meh.

Some of what I write is just me explaining things I already understand. Some of it is AI-assisted. But at the end of the day, I’m still the one shaping the content, refining the ideas, and making it my own.

So if you’re on the fence about starting something because of self-doubt, let this be your push. Stop overthinking and start doing.