Just Start

How often do we put things off because we don't want to do them? How often do we not do something because we say we'll do it later? Don't answer that. It's probably a lot more often than you think and much more often than you'd like.

The reason I ask this is that there is so much power in just starting something. I think that sometimes we put unfair expectations on ourselves and think that everything has to be perfect before we start. Or at the very least that we have to have an idea of what we're doing before we start. I believe this to be a huge and devastating limiting factor. For example, why didn't I write anything the past couple of days? Sure, I wasn't getting much sleep and staying up all night supporting a friend in his physical and mental endeavours but that's not an excuse. That's just nonsense. I can always write. I can always say something. I just convince myself otherwise. You see, I convinced myself that I wasn't in a perfect position so, therefore, I didn't start. It's sad when you start to be honest with yourself and think about all of the times you probably do that in your life. Think of all of the wasted opportunities or growth experiences you're missing out on. Think of all of the great ideas or "successes" you missed out on because you were afraid to start something because the conditions weren't ideal. I hate to break it to you but the conditions will probably never be ideal. There will always be an excuse and there will always be a reason to hold back and not express yourself or do something.

Ideas are only as good as the action that you take to make them happen. You can't sit on the bench all of your life and expect anything great to happen. Newsflash, it won't. We only get one go-around at this thing. The people who do and achieve great things are the ones who aren't afraid to pinch-hit with the bases loaded and 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth inning with everything on the line. Sure, they might strikeout or look silly. They may get ridiculed and laughed at. But at least they had the guts to step up to the plate in the first place. At least they dug in and took some hacks. You'll never achieve anything in life if you don't get off the bench and into the game. How do you do that? By just starting. Left foot, right foot, repeat. And repeat, and repeat and repeat. There is no guarantee of success. There is no such thing as a sure thing in this life. But would you rather fail because you gave it your all and things just didn't work out? Or would you rather fail because you didn't get yourself off of the bench and into the game?

Just start.

I apologize if this was a bit of a rant today but it was more of a pep talk of sorts to myself. There's no excuse to not chase your dreams and make it happen. It comes down to something as simple as doing one thing and another and another. Let the momentum of completed tasks carry you to places you never thought possible. Little things add up to big things. But we have to do the little things before we can even start thinking about accomplishing the big ones. Keep a short-term vision on a long-term goal. Then, watch as that short-term vision evolves into your long-term goal.

Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Get after it.