I started my YT career on a whim: you can too

‘What made you start Youtube?’

I succesfully completed my first livestream on Youtube last night. As I was haphazardly sculpting rocks and rivers onto the page, one subscriber posed the above question.

Grabbing onto any chance to talk about myself (which, by the way, is a great excuse to start a Youtube channel), I delivered a dialogue reminiscent of any good speech: how it was a childhood dream since I was 12, how I have wandered through life searching for the right thing to talk about, the years of planning…

Not.

It took me 10+ years to harbour my dream. It took me seconds to decide to upload my first official video.

When I sat down to paint in April of 2021, I decided to film it, just for fun. Once I completed it, I pulled open my Adobe Rush app and edited the footage (Just for fun…?).

If you’ve ever edited on your phone you’ll know that the videos are acceptable, but not great. This didn’t stop me. As I wavered between hitting the publish button, my finger ‘accidentally' slipped and the video went live.

Done. I had published my first official Youtube video. No planning, all on a whim: just. For. Fun.

Since then, I have not turned back.

Turns out, this phenomenon is actually a thing, called Improvisational Productivity. Ali Abdaal talks about it in this video if you’re interested to learn more.

The basic rundown is: if you want to start something, start it as soon as possible, in the heat of the moment (kind of like how I’m writing this article).

So if youre anxiously waiting, fruitlessly searching, or furiously planning to start something — don’t. Just start. Now.