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I learned this week that the early run of a newspaper is sometimes known as a bulldog edition. Nobody seems to quite know why, although there are many theories, including the fact that one newspaper group published every early edition with a leading photo of the owners' favourite bulldog, to indicate to readers it was
a first print.
Whatever the origin, the reason for my bulldog edition is not driven by a love of bulldogs (I don't think I've ever written the word bulldog so often) but rather, that while I love writing, the thought of starting work on a newsletter became 'that' task. The thing I kept putting to the bottom of the pile. The item that has been languishing on my to-do list for so very long, that - like wallpaper - it became unseen. Something that was so overwhelming, I just didn't do it. In the end my simple solution was to remove the mental obstacle of starting by no longer thinking of it as volume 1. Bulldog edition it is.
So often when we have difficulty in starting a task, our problem is not with the task itself, but with the moment before. The transition. The state of moving from not doing something to doing it, from discomfort to comfort, from not having a newsletter to having started it. The wonderful thing to remember about transitional moments is how fleeting and short-lived they are. Take a deep breath, do something right away that moves you forward and *tah dah* you've started
Before I'd reached this point, when reading about the best strategies for getting started (anything but actually get started, you understand) one piece of advice was to build in small rewards for getting things done. I'm off to reward myself with a well-done cuppa, but before I do that, here are a few things I've saved this week that i'm sure would serve as great motivators for putting together issue 2, and perhaps for any transition moments you have coming up too
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