Slightly Remarkable

Reading news today, I came across an article at Mozillazine about the bookmark system in Firefox being rewritten by Vladimir Vukićević. The thing is, Vladimir hasn’t finished this small project, yet he’s announcing that he will be doing it in the near future. Sure there’s no deadline, but Vladimir has no choice but to do what he announced he would do.

As I read the article, I thought to myself, “What if I were working on something like this and said that I would be making such-and-such? What if I didn’t deliver? How would I feel? How do I feel now?” The truth is, I have a feeling that I won’t be able to commit the time to a project that I need to in order to complete it. It’s a feeling of fear and self-inadequacy. I’m confident that I could do it, time providing. The problem is that, obviously, time is a large issue and I am afraid that I won’t be able to complete what I set out to do within that limited amount of time (even if there is no deadline, an approximate one should always be assigned mentally, otherwise you’ll never get to it).

A vital approach to a beginning project is to start confidently. If you are having doubts or approach the project with a timid attitude, you’re more likely to give up or, worse, procrastinate. Get your things together and be completely sure that this is something you want to do and can do, then give it your all — don’t hold back. Think of it as a game of chess: you consider the location of the pieces, decide which piece you want to move, where you want that piece to go, and then you confidently move that piece — no second thoughts, no take-backs. If you cause a problem, you can rectify it by making changes in the future or changing your strategy, instead of wishing that you could go back and make changes.