Don’t overthink.
Overthinking paralyzes. You need a limit on how much time you pour into an idea. Cook it too long and you’ll burn your neurons and your creativity right out of it.
And you know what? When you lose the art of doing, your originality goes with it. Without creativity, you can’t make anything truly your own… and imitation is a kind of imprisonment. Unless you can copy and make it better, you’ll start every project already feeling like you’re losing.
In fact, starting something while believing you’ve already failed is a recipe for disaster. It’s why most people quit before success ever arrives.
I see it as a cake recipe, something like this:
1. Go in search for references (consume them daily, a few hours, from many different sources)
2. Have the idea (but let it land)
3. Start writing (Immediately map out the possible step-by-step to make it happen)
4. Only now start the execution
It should always have a step-by-step.
An idea without writing becomes a burden. Writing sets you free because it gives you the path. Nobody reaches the top before taking the first step.
I believe this is the single biggest mistake people make when they fail: they think the result arrives with the idea. I don’t think it does.
How I learned this
My professional life started to change when I finally understood this mindset and it came to me through editing mini-docs.
I started producing documentaries years ago, and as always, I was wildly in love with the story I wanted to tell. But before I knew it, I was postponing the edit as long as possible.
Procrastination.
I came to understand it doesn’t exist because of laziness, it exists because of fear. Know why we so often produce our best work at the last minute, when the deadline is the next morning? Because we shorten the gap between thinking and doing. There’s no time left to overthink, no room to imagine the thousand ways it could go wrong.
But with video editing, you can’t leave it for the last minute. I need days to pass so I can see the cut with fresh eyes before delivery. It’s not a job you can finish in a few hours even when it’s “done,” you need distance in the looking.
So I understood I needed a workflow:
• Today, I’ll just select the takes.
• Tomorrow, place them on the timeline.
• The day after, choose the music. And so on.
Like a cake recipe, I learned to see my videos as a step-by-step. It improved my flow because it fixed my emotional state.
I never sit down imagining the final result. I just feel it and I don’t overestimate it.
What 12 Years Taught Me
In these 12 years of creating content, working with clients all over the world, across cultures and concepts of time, I’ve learned this:
Whatever we do, we shouldn’t do it to make it work, but we should work until it works.
For me, that’s the secret to growth. I visualize. I see the potential. I set a goal. And then I immediately erase the expectation of success from my mind.
From that moment on, every time I think about the project, I only think about what I need to do today.
For example:
I write down the financial goal.
I divide it by the number of days.
Done.
The final number doesn’t scare me anymore, because I don’t think about it. If I did, I’d overthink and I’d probably quit.
Eventually the results come.
Is there another way that works for you? Does this resonate? Drop a comment, we can always learn and exchange with each other.
For the wild,
Maya 🌿
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