The Starting Line
I’ve had many people ask me, “How do I start a _______?” But this question is unnecessary until you ask another question first.
“When?”
I’ve had many people ask me, “How do I start a _______?” But this question is unnecessary until you ask another question first.
“When?”
If you’re thinking about doing something…stop thinking, go do it!
I have years of regret from sitting on the sidelines.
Get in the game.
And if you feel you aren’t able to, start your own.
Excuses ruin more dreams than failed attempts ever could.
I was speaking with a friend at a party recently and she said she had a lot of things she wanted to do once the kids were settled into school and their new house was all finished.
I asked, “What’s the one thing that tops the list?”
One Day or Day One?
When will you choose to reach deep into the unknown to do something you’ve always wanted to do?
We are either going to regret never doing it or rejoice that we took the leap to try.
The rest are merely excuses delaying the inevitable.
Before we have a billion we have to surpass 100 million, a million, 100 thousand, a thousand, a hundred, and ten.
But all of these couldn’t have happened without one.
The first one starts it all. It is the strike of the match that can ignite your life.
Does it scare you? Thinking about death.
In our storied history, it’s the only thing that is pitching a perfect game.
When creativity flows one of the worst things we can do is suppress it.
We can’t be certain that the idea or flow of consciousness will ever come again.
We must embrace it head-on.
The difference between kids and adults is that kids almost exclusively do things that are either fun, challenging, or both. They don’t waste time on the things that they don’t enjoy. They don’t have the patience for it.
Nothing happens until we start.
No experience.
No learning.
No failure.
No nothing.
As a parent, I’m constantly amazed. Yes, this is a proud dad post but it’s a lesson we all can take.
Cliffs Notes: I noticed my son loving musicals and encouraged him to watch/listen more. He recently started Musical Theatre classes and he knows every word to the show Hamilton so he wanted a hat and outfit to look like Lin-Manual Miranda’s character in the broadway show.
At school, they had a “play day” to bring in a toy to play with in the class. He wanted to bring his hat and he wrote this note as a reminder.
I’ve been bleeding the Just Get Started mission for several years.
The Podcast.
The Blogging.
The Children’s Books.
The Sales Consulting.
The Coaching calls and guidance.
The venturing out into the dark wilderness.
I used to be the “I’ll get started on Monday” type.
I became the “just get started now” type.
That single mindset shift changed my life.
I promise it’ll change yours, too.
Once we try it we can’t untry it
Once we see it we can’t unsee it
Once we meet them we can’t unmeet them
We have to stop saying we don’t have the time.
We have time.
We don’t have it as a priority.
If we did, we’d accomplish it. It’d be the first thing we check off the list.
I was nervous and excited to hit “launch” on Episode 1 of the Just Get Started Podcast 5 years ago in 2017.
Today, I cringe a bit listening back to that first episode.
So many things I’ve learned in those 5 years.
Age is just a number. It’s meaningless.
If we believe that then we can push ourselves to the limits every day.
We can expand our minds.
We can become who we’ve always wanted to be.
As we are reading this, time is evaporating. Not nearly at the speed it appears it has been going as the present time always feels slower.
When we peek into the past it feels like time has moved at hyperspeed.
But, then again, the moment we are in now will become that blurred memory soon enough.
If we haven’t defined what “happiness” means to us then how can we be sure we are making the right choices to lead us to a happier life?
Happiness is the result of consistent decisions that are aligned with our virtues, values, and vision for our life.
I enjoyed writing for many years and would normally write in journals or random blog articles from time to time. The content structure and topics changed over time but similar messaging was at its core.
Positive Mindset. Consistency. Action. Progress.
James Dyson took over 5000 tries to “perfect” his Dyson vacuums before he saw traction. We can all be grateful he put that level of determination into his work or we’d still be emptying vacuum bags to this day.
We may be discouraged because of failures of the past but we also have to have a perspective that the future is unwritten. We don’t know what will happen. We have to be willing to give the door one more knock and see if it opens.
It’s interesting to find comparisons in creative works that are so seemingly different from one another.
Harry Potter
The Mona Lisa
The Cat in the Hat
Red (Taylor’s Version)
What could these possibly have in common?
If we believe in something, we should express it, share it, and put it out into the universe.
Nothing may come of it or it might turn out to be the most glorious breakthrough ever.
We won’t know until we try.
Sometimes just knowing one way or another might be good enough motivation to get us started.
Throughout life you’ll be knocked down, told you’re not good enough, picked on, called names, passed over, and laughed at. Nobody is immune to these sorts of things.
But life is what you make of it and you have the ability to be strong, be positive, and have the courage to forge your own path despite what others may say.
I wasn’t able to attend our 20-year high school reunion this past weekend but as I sat and reflected on the last 20 years I was inclined to write some things down. Things I wish I wrote a long time ago.
Here are a few observations, and hopefully, we can use these ourselves, pass them down to our kids, or maybe the class of 2021/22 can gain insight into areas that were unknown to us at the time.
If we happen to be in the passenger seat at this moment then there’s no better time to try and take the wheel. We may not be able to control the outcome of what happens but we can control our effort and action toward completing the objective we believe in.
It’s not an overnight change and certainly not easy but we should be happy it is that way. We should be grateful that the hard work we put in and the endurance we’ve managed to muster up to get to a new place, a better place, don’t just evaporate overnight as well.
Similar to yesterday, the earth made a full rotation. We didn’t feel it but we know it happened. We are back to the same spot where we started.
We can often get discouraged if we compare ourselves to what others are doing. It’s easy with the access we have to social networks. We get a glimpse of how everyone else appears to be prospering while we are paddling like hell in a circle.
The hardest time to start something is tomorrow. It appears easier to plan for it and then go full steam ahead but it doesn’t always work out that way. Something foils the well-laid plan and usually, it is ourselves.
If you want to accomplish anything you must set goals. We hear this all day every day and although this is sound advice it also comes with caution because goals can be a safe haven for procrastination.
One of the biggest challenges I had in getting over the hump of creating content (Podcasts, books, blogs, etc) is that I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I felt I needed all of the answers upfront before I could put “pen to paper” and create something magical.
I was completely wrong.
It’s a new year, a new decade, and a clean slate to get it all right this year. “This is going to be my year”, It seems is the type of thing we say to ourselves each orbit around the sun. Why will this year be any different? What have you learned in the past 12 months that will make you believe you can change?