Reframe Creative Paralysis When Starting a New Project

The project is in your head and has been for longer than you want to admit. You know what it is, roughly. You have not started it, or you have started and stopped twice. This reframes the paralysis: what the smallest complete version looks like, what is actually stopping you versus what you have convinced yourself is stopping you, and the one question that changes the frame from starting to continuing.

You have an idea for a creative project and you are not starting it. You have had the idea for longer than is reasonable. You are either refining the concept endlessly, researching the subject beyond usefulness, or choosing between versions of the project rather than beginning any of them. Reframe the paralysis.

Work through:
1. Name the project precisely. One sentence: what it is, what form it takes, what it is about.
2. What is the smallest possible version of this project that would be finished rather than abandoned? Not a draft. A complete, small thing.
3. What specifically is stopping you from starting the small version? Name it: fear of it being bad, not knowing enough yet, not having time, not knowing where to start.
4. Is the thing stopping you a real obstacle or a precondition you have invented? What is the actual evidence it needs to be resolved before you start?
5. Reframe: what would you do tomorrow if the project had already started and you were just continuing it?