Just Begin

Change one thing at a time until you are happy. - Barbara Dourley (a colleague)

There has never in the history of advertising been a better campaign, I believe, than Nike's Just Do It. Nothing more needs to be said. No complaints. No excuses. No bargaining. Just do it.

I create so many excuses to procrastinate: I’m tired; I deserve the night off; I’ll have more time to focus on it tomorrow or next week or maybe even next year; it’s all too overwhelming; I don’t know where to start; if I do start it will probably suck so why bother. It’s so easy to just give myself a break…every day. And the breaks add up into immeasurable periods of inactivity and unproductivity, making everything seem even more overwhelming and insurmountable. 

So my word of the month, watchword, mantra so to speak is to simply Begin. I often find that just the act of sitting in my desk chair after a long day of work will inspire some kind of movement.  And movement triggers momentum. If I can motivate myself to sit down to do 20 minutes of writing, it will probably turn into 40. If I say I’ll go for a run, but allow myself to walk when tired, I will usually get the motivation to keep running once I’ve started. And something is almost always better than nothing. 

It’s getting the impetus to start that I find impossible some days. So my focus is on the beginning, that first step of action, and I’ll let natural momentum take care of the rest. I found a ring with the word Begin on it which will be my touchstone. I'm going to use the 45-minute hourglass that my Dad bought me to set time boundaries for chunks of activity. And I'm going to revisit weekly goal lists. And I'm starting today with, what else, editing the book!

It's never too late to Just Begin.