Alternatives researched, well qualified, books bought and read, desk clean, no disruptions, sitting comfortably, inbox cleared, coffee in hand, ready to get started?

It’s easy to be paralyzed by choices, unsure of our expertise, gnawed by doubt and uncertain if we’re ready to give something a go. For many of us, the threshold is high to get started on the projects in our heads, the actions to improve our finances or the exercise we plan to do.

It’s so easy to think we’re not ready. Here’s the actor Hugh Laurie with one of my favourite pieces of advice:

“It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that, actually, no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.”

Getting started allows us to start learning. Sure, our first steps might be the wrong ones, but in starting, we soon find the right ones.

This sketch is in the style of the financial advisor Carl Richards who publishes at behaviorgap.com. His simple, minimalist drawings do a great job of hitting home a point, and he also shares the wise advice: “The only mistake you can make when it comes to financial planning is doing nothing.”

When I worked as head of user experience and design at Nutmeg I saw, time and again, that the largest mistake people made with their finances was putting it off and, ultimately, doing nothing.

Worried about making a hash of something? Don’t worry. The first draft is always perfect. Here are more of my sketches with my thoughts on getting started.

This sketch was revised (see original) for the book Big Ideas Little Pictures.

Benefits to you from getting started

A microlife is thirty minutes of your life expectancy. You can use it up by chilling for 30 minutes or you could start to speed through them by smoking a few cigarettes or having a few drinks.

A simple way to bring difficult-to-grasp long-term, slow-burn risks into a unit that can motivate you and a handy way to compare risks.

Even better, you gain a microlife with 2-3 cups of coffee. Win!

Interesting? See Microlives: A lesson in risk taking, by Cambridge University Professor of risk David Spiegelhalter. Or see his 15 min TED talk: Motorbikes, Terrorism, Heart Attacks, Sausages: Professor David Spiegelhalter at TEDxOxbridge, or the full paper.

Microlife: The unit of life

How do barnacles move? Well, the barnacles we see don’t move. But when they’re little, they do swim, and once they’ve found their spot they basically cement themselves in place.

They’re what’s known as sessile animals — ones that don’t move once settled, along with mussels and coral. Now that would be a different way of life.

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How do barnacles move anyway?