I am just noting the emphasis you place upon “now” — and I agree that the “now” feature is very significant. Procrastination is the enemy of change, and its charms are illusory. So for example I was saying that I attempt difficult tasks but ones that seem at least solvable. However, say I take on something that turns out to be simply way too difficult. In art, at least, and in many areas of life this kind of failure is a big “so what.” Even in failure you learn “something.” I grant I wouldn’t want a surgeon to attempt the utterly new and different thing on me without at least practicing on a mannequin or something. But most of life isn’t surgery. And of course in areas like that, people still strategize how they can get from the familiar to the experimental with the least risk exposure.

But you do have to begin with “now.” When you get the idea that moment is the good time to begin first steps of its implementation. Even if you cannot accomplish it completely, the first steps are important to take. First steps might be as simple as writing the idea down.

After my husband died I had to make some changes in our house and I found it hard to move his belongings. I let myself have the period of grief I needed. But one day, I thought I have to move “these books” as part of a larger renovation, and to begin that task which seemed so big and portentous, I just took a handful of books off the shelf and put them on a table that was sitting near by. That was it. That’s all I did. But later I was able to do the whole task. I knew that even a small arbitrary gesture would count emotionally. And it did.