Draw the first line

Some years ago, I got an excellent piece of advice about how to start creative work from a senior designer friend. They were working at the time for a less-than-creative corporate organisation. I was there as well, and it wasn’t like either of us were experiencing a watershed moment. But we were trying our best to change the culture, one piece at a time. It was in this organisation that I noticed something interesting.

Everyone seemed to show an overarching fear of being the first person to ‘make a mark’ on an issue. This sometimes translated to a fear of being the first person to speak, the first to draw on a whiteboard or the first person to offer up a sketch of an idea.

My friend offered this piece of advice, which I’ll have to paraphrase, because it’s been a few years since I heard it.

‘Everyone is most afraid of the blank page, of drawing the first line. So what I do is I draw the first line quickly and boldly. Without fear. Without recrimination. Because I know I can always draw a second line. And a third. And a fourth. And so on. Eventually, I can shape the outcome to be whatever I need it to be by drawing a dozen lines, a hundred or a thousand. As long as I get over my fear of that first line.’

In time, I’ve since seen the links between this idea and many others, like the well-worn cliche, ‘the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.’ The thing is, it might be a cliched idea, but it’s a great reminder when gripped by fear while sitting there looking at an empty page.

Break through by typing that first character, pasting that first picture or putting in that first number.

Put another way…

Draw the first line… and change it from there.