Sometimes it’s best to simply move forward with something and reset the goal as you move forward.

Rather than initially setting the goal as “I’m reworking my entire life and this is my future full-time job,” start with “this seems like a super fun thing to do, so I’m going to do it and see what happens.”

[dina Amin] (https://www.dinaaamin.com/) was an inspiration for pursuing fun. I saw her speak at the October 2019 Smashing Conference. She told a story of how she enjoyed taking things apart. Then she got a camera and figured out stop-motion photography. She made adorable little videos from the things she took apart. People love her work, and it eventually started to pay the bills through conference talks, commissions, workshops, commercial work, and so forth. This is the model of an artist.

It’s also hard to think about a problem when you’re personally invested in it. When I think about new businesses, I think about all of the things that could go wrong, what happens if no one likes it or wants it, what happens if it doesn’t make enough money (or any money), and so forth. These doubts are powerful.

But what if it goes right? Sometimes that’s even more scary.