Tag: Begin

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Just Begin

Photo:MartinSanchez/Unsplash

Many of us have long lists of things to get done during our day, and we approach it in different ways. We all know—or are—the super-organized person who writes out her list, ticks off the things as she finishes them, and watches the time to be sure she has enough time to complete her checklist. Or, we have a general idea of what needs to happen in our day, and we start on what we might view as the most important thing to be done first. We all have different ways of approaching tasks in our lives, and we also have put off things we know we should do sooner than later, but we keep pushing those until ‘later.’ Well, as we often find out, ‘later’ never comes, and something doesn’t get done. Why? Perhaps it’s something that we don’t enjoy doing, or perhaps it’s a difficult conversation we need to have with a co-worker or family member that we really don’t want to have. In these cases, we are already thinking of the ‘worst-case scenario,’ and feeling that it will be difficult, or draining, we put it off until later. Of course, the issues that do need to be discussed don’t get discussed, and the problem that pushed us to bring up the subject continues and nothing is solved. And so goes the cycle of not-accomplishing something. 

There is an old adage that goes something like,’Success comes when you begin.’  Simple, and to the point. It says nothing about our fear of success or failure of any given task, or how we might feel about what we are about to face, but just the simplicity of starting. So. Start now. Take a few minutes and make a list of what needs to be done. Don’t skimp on anything or avoid the hard stuff because we aren’t actually doing anything right now; we are simply setting up things—planning—now to do later. Now take a look at the list in front of you and select the top five things to be done. From this shortened list, now choose one thing. This is what you will do next. Ideally, it will be something you can accomplish today, for if it requires too much time, you won’t be able to move through it quickly and be tempted to give up. So, if it can be done in about ten or fifteen minutes, choose this one. This task will be your small win for the day. But, wait, we’re not quite finished. We now need to make a decision to do this one thing. By taking the first step to begin this task and starting, you have made the decision easy by just beginning.

Yes, there are a lot of things we could be doing instead of this small task, but for habitual procrastinators, like myself, this is difficult work. But by giving ourselves those ‘small wins’ and begin to see that putting things off only complicates our lives, we begin to think in a different way, and the thought that maybe doing this now isn’t quite as bad as I thought begins to be replaced by beginning to see what can quickly and easily be done, checked off the list, and we are able to move on to other, perhaps more enjoyable things in our lives. We simply need to keep thinking, ‘just begin…’

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The Challenge of Change

Changing things in our lives—our habits, our jobs, where we live, and how we move through life—can sometimes be challenging. We all have great ideas of how we can improve one thing or another, how a different locale would be beneficial, and so forth, and we often create great ways to make those changes. It is at that time, or perhaps after an initial period of change, that we begin to think of how much easier things used to be before we started on this new track. New Year’s Resolutions seem to be some of the easiest to abandon, particularly if you look at the number of gyms and fitness centers that see a huge spike in membership during January, and then see use of their facilities and services drop precipitously by March. There are the determined few, though, who stick to their resolutions and begin to see and feel the changes they wanted. This is not, however, about resolutions, per se, but more about the difficulties we have in making lasting changes that truly do improve our health, our lives, or our jobs. Research suggests it takes about 66 days for a new habit to form, replacing the old habit or behavior. That 66 days could be shortened to 21 days, depending on what habit was being formed, or it could take nearly a year to become automatic behavior. The same research also suggests that the longer a new habit takes to form, the greater the possibility of dropping it altogether. The reason for this is while your conscious mind is reminding you to get up earlier, pull on your running togs and trainers and get outside for a morning run, you unconscious mind is reminding you how much easier your life would seem if you did not do that, and stayed in your comfort zone. Remaining in your comfort zone, however, is the equivalent of stasis. No movement. No improvement. Life, however, goes on whether or not we do or not. Not improving, not learning, not growing, all contribute to a life that never improves, no matter how much we say we want to change things.

What to do? Make. A. Move. Any move in the desired direction of change is fine. It doesn’t matter how small it is. Writing one sentence of your book-to-be. Running 50 yards as a start to your future Marathon. Tiny, tiny steps, most certainly, but they move us forward, and don’t allow us to mentally or physically atrophy, which is what happens when we do nothing at all. How to keep ourselves focused? We all know ourselves pretty well, so if you are the type that knows you are going to sleep in late, give yourself an out. Enlist an early-rising friend to call you at 5:30 AM as a reminder. Let others know what you’re doing, and what you want to accomplish. Each day you don’t sleep in late, and force yourself to lace up your trainers to get yourself out the door, is one day closer to your goal. And as you take those first steps on your morning run, you are closer still to that Marathon than you were before. Each sentence written for your book leads to other thoughts and more sentences that form the basis of the story you tell. That last thought I know all too well, and am too familiar with the book-that-never-was, but that has become the book-on-its-way. Twenty-one days? Sixty-six days? No. But it is coming into being, word by word, sentence by sentence, and at some point, it will take on a life of its own, and I will simply be its copywriter as the story unfolds in book form. 

So, write that sentence. Do that sit-up. Run to the end of the driveway. Act. Begin. And be prepared to see the changes you desire, as well as those wonderful things that happen because you took action.