Motives by excess reverse their very nature and instead of exciting, stun and stupefy the mind.

Past a certain point, more reason to act stops helping and starts freezing you. A stake that matters slightly sharpens attention; a stake that matters enormously floods it, and the mind that was going to do the work goes blank instead. This is why the important email takes three days and the trivial one takes two minutes. The size of the motive became the obstacle.

When something matters too much to start, shrink it deliberately. Tell yourself you are writing a rough version nobody will see, or set a timer for fifteen minutes. Lowering the stakes artificially is often the only way to get the real work moving.