The 'I Can't Start' Problem

Let me confess: I postponed starting this piece too. I found myself in the middle of an irony — unable to write “The ‘I Can't Start’ Problem.” I tidied the desk, made a coffee, tidied the desk again... The mind, when it wants to escape, is extraordinarily creative.

Contrary to what they suppose, people are usually not lazy; they simply cannot start. Not being able to start has less to do with a weakness of character than with the way the mind works. The mind reads vague, large-looking tasks as a threat. This is why a person sometimes postpones even what they want to do, imagining they are protecting themselves.

The behavioral scientist BJ Fogg's model says that for a behavior to occur, motivation, ability, and a trigger must be present at the same moment. So wanting something is not enough on its own. That behavior must start easily enough and be triggered at the right time. This is why big goals often paralyze a person instead of moving them.

The psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik has a classic observation: unfinished tasks stay more vivid in the mind than completed ones. The bad side of this is that unfinished work hums inside our heads. The good side is this: starting a task even for two minutes pulls the mind toward completing it. So the real miracle isn't in finishing, but in having started.

To start, you must first shrink the goal. Instead of “I'll finish a book,” saying “I'll read one page” lowers the mind's resistance. Instead of “I'll start exercising,” saying “I'll walk for five minutes” makes the behavior possible. Because a person usually loses not because they can't continue, but because they set the threshold of starting wrong.

So the practical rule is this: find the two-minute version of everything you want to begin. If you're going to write, just put down the title. If you're going to exercise, just put on your shoes. If you want to learn, just open the first video. A person usually becomes motivated once they move; and because they wait for motivation, they cannot move. Now, you'll say “it can't be this simple.” Try it. This piece too began with a single sentence. Stay well.