The Power of the Creative First Lap

Perfectionism keeps us from starting. Here's how to fix that.

You want to paint, write, or make a film, but you get caught in that chronic perfectionist loop. Weeks and months go by without any tangible progress. You’ve been consumed by planning, researching, educating, looking for that elusive moment that says, “I’m ready. Let’s go!”

It won’t come. Ever.

That’s the hard knocks.

“That doesn’t help much,” you say. You’re right.

Here’s how you break out of chronic perfectionist hesitancy.

Photo by Braden Collum on Unsplash

Give yourself a first lap around the creative running track.

A creative first lap is where you get yourself acclimated to the race. Your body is in motion, warming up, adjusting. You’re mindset is getting into the rhythm. You feel the ground under your feet, the grip of your shoes on the earth, and the wind rushing across. You correct your path, you change your stride, you dial up your cadence, you get your breathing under control.

You’re not where you should be, you might even be in the back, but you’re on the track and you’re moving.

How many winning runners, or jockeys on horses, are at the very back of the pack in that first lap of the race?

Junior Alvarado rode Sovereignty to a stunning victory at the 2025 Kentucky Derby after starting the first lap at the very back of the pack.

Being at the back isn’t losing. It’s not a mistake. Sometimes it’s strategy.

Before the race, if you believe you should be at the head of the pack right after that starting gun goes off, then you’re going to face a tsunami of hesitation. So much hesitation that you won’t step into the starting block.

Kill that debilitating perfectionist hesitancy by reframing your first lap.

Let the first lap be a lap of failures, missteps, and mistakes. Give yourself no expectations but to race out of that gate and run as best you can. Are you at the back of the pack? Who cares? At least you’re running.

If you want a perfect first lap you will never have a perfect win. Never.

Get in that gate today and run!

Do the best that you can even if it’s worse than most, or worse than everyone else.

How you finish is not determined by how you start.

How you start is strategic. The win isn’t determined by winning that first lap, if there is such a thing.

What’s worse than a bad first lap is not taking that lap at all. Doesn’t matter why you’re not taking that lap.

Everything about societal expectations, everything within our egos, and everything on social media, is holding you back from starting.

We’re unsure, we’re insecure, we’re afraid of messing something up, we’re afraid to face the difficulties of starting. So what do we do? We put books and courses and YouTube videos between us and doing the work. We watch other creatives to try to glean some lesson from them. We look for inspiration all over the place. We research the best materials and tools to help us run our first lap in style. We’re obsessed with searching for those expert secrets, those industry tricks, to speed up our growth.

And all the sales pitches by course creators and experts are designed to make you think you’re missing something and that they can help you not waste valuable time and energy without learning this or doing that or having that secret stack or that efficient system. Don’t fall into that chasm. It will spin you like a top every time you check your feeds.

You can be sure of this. The worse thing you can do is not not taking that course. It’s not not buying that book. It’s not not joining that community. You know what it is. It’s not starting now. Now. Not tomorrow. Now. Today. The today kind of now.

You’re not a horse that needs to be trained for seven years from birth. You’re a human being who is resilient and who needs more than anything else, to do the work.

If I have one regret in my creative life, it’s trying to prepare myself to have the best start. Deadly. Career changing. Opportunity killing. Developmentally disabling.

You don’t know what your best start looks like by comparing your start with others.

Get in that starting gate and go now. Go. Start tonight.

Don’t wait to buy that better camera.

Don’t wait for that new software package.

You don’t need that new microphone.

You don’t need to subscribe to that writing software.

Don’t buy expensive paints, brushes, and canvases. Get the cheapest materials you can find, and if you have some already, just start painting.

Expect to throw it all away. Expect to hate it all. Expect it to discourage you. Don’t stumble off the sideline.

Give yourself the strategic gift of a first lap before you start thinking about how to move up the pack.

Start small. Make it manageable. Your first efforts should be sprints, not marathons.

Don’t put a book or a course between you and starting. Learn while you go. You will learn while you go. You need that experience. Instruction lands strongest when you are in movement. Being in education mode is a stand still. Move and grow. It seems counter intuitive because we’ve been brainwashed by higher education to think that way.

Move. Go. Do. Now.

Get to that starting block.

Run now.

Keep running.