How to Begin Again

I cannot tell you how many times I have let something slide away even though I started with a lot of hope, gusto, and hustle. Work out plans, new ways of eating or resting, this damn blog, a habit of reading, etc.

The most egregious thing I can do is to start to let all those mini-failures pile up into a certain belief about myself. Right? In the back of your mind, maybe it’s extremely quiet or not even word-status yet, there’s this notion of “Oh, you won’t quite succeed. You’re weak or flawed in some way. Whatever.”

Your little notion could be slightly different, but it’s all the same seed: Keeping ourselves small so we don’t have the responsibilities of something bigger.

Well! I can’t go back and change that I didn’t post here for weeks. All I can do is post now.

The simple act of beginning again is marking another victory tally for the positive belief about self. Letting something slide away but then restarting is called practicing. We practice to become better at the thing. The more we begin again, the more we prove that we are actually just… doing it.

The how of beginning again is:

1. Plan less. A lot of us spend a ton of time figuring out how not to fail or flounder again. It’s fine to have a few minutes or an hour to reassess and make a new plan, but almost all of us will stay in that planning mode for waaaay too long to procrastinate the restart.
2. Commit to failing. Write down or say out loud to yourself “It’s ok if it is far from perfect. I’m going to do it.”
3. Do it.

Ask yourself right now, dear reader: What is something you let slide that you can begin again today or this week? Got it? I can’t make you do it. But I can write in all caps and root for you: YOU CAN DO IT!