You wait and wait . . . and wait, until you get there. You carved out the dedicated time to write that blog post, update your website, start that project and you sit there. You sit, in unease, in growing frustration, in muttering self-deprecation.

How to do you start? Should you do more research? Read that next chapter, watch that YouTube video to supplement your knowledge, to provide inspiration. Does it? Or does it push back your start date?

This is the inevitable suffering you go through at the beginning of any project. The bigger the goal, the more nebulous the idea, the harder it is to overcome the inertia.

Your mind turns to those productivity websites. How about chunking your work? Let’s turn them into smaller digestible morsels and you will be on your way. But wait, what can those morsels be?

If it is an ultra-marathon, the path and waypoints are clear. Break the race into stretches between aid stations, four miles, then four miles more and so on. Look forward to that orange wedge or potato slice dipped in salt at the completion of each micro-goal.

However, writing is less clear. How many words? What if you come to a dead end after the first paragraph? There are many back-steps. But you write all the same, trust that the momentum will build, the path will clear, and you can see those crucial few yards ahead.

You are like Axl and Beatrice in the ‘The Buried Giant’. You talked about embarking on a journey for years. Yet, you don’t know the way or even what you will find when you get there. However, you embark all the same, recollecting along the way. Thoughts hang together in a semblance of an article you can hone, an idea you can market test, or a design you can perfect.

There are forks and wrong turns. But this is part of the creative process. The part that is unique compared to that qualification you wanted, the promotion you were chasing. You have to be comfortable with forming your own structure, not knowing whether parts will crumble or break off, or even if it will collapse all together.

Axl and Beatrice continue with their journey trusting their amnesia will lift. What emerges are painful memories and questions about their devotion. But clarity allows them to deal with their pain and find meaning in their relationship. In the end, they have resolution and a way forward.

The suffering is worth it to find meaning. Especially if it is a meaning you have crafted yourself. Helped by characters, friend or foe you meet on the way. It is best not to let things linger – make your way through the pain in order to understand it better.

Just think. How many things haven’t you started? Or never gave a meaningful attempt? Compare it to those times where you achieved a goal, decided to see through a difficult conversation or go out and meet that person. All those times, no matter how small, I bet there was growth or learning. A thought that inspired you, an opinion that became a resolution, or a new connection that offered a path unconsidered.

You miss out on so much by not working your way through, especially when there is ambiguity. You are never going to have a solid plan, so write that article or make that first prototype. The learning will be there at the end, the fog will lift and little and you will see the way to the next milestone.

Trust in yourself, not your feelings. Don’t miss out on life by hiding away from it.