And I feel like that can be a super-power.
We have all heard the saying, start scared. I agree. Starting anything new comes with an entire set of emotions ranging from excitement to what the fuck am I doing here.
The beautiful thing is that range is usually happening simultaneously, but we tend to pay more attention to the scary end of it. Our default is to focus on what could go wrong, think of every possible reason we should not do the thing, and wait until a different time, a BETTER time.
In rehearsing every possible worst-case scenario, we forget to give a little attention to all the things that could go right.
Learning to face your fears is scary and needed if you want to do anything different with your life.
If you are cool, happy entirely in your situation, then go on with your bad self. This post isn’t for you. It is for folks like me.
Anyone who feels like they have something more in them.
Something they need to share with the world, something they have yet to accomplish.
Anything from getting a different job, moving to another place, starting the business or podcast, getting after your fitness goals, learning to love yourself, or in the least; respect yourself. This is for anyone who knows they need to dive into something NEW and different but are unsure when or how.
Start. Start now. Start small. Start scared. Just start.
Waiting for the perfect time is like waiting for a cruise ship at the airport. That shit isn’t coming.
You can sit all day, all week, all month, and all year and all you will have accomplished is nothing. More waiting. The awful thing is in waiting for the “perfect time” to arrive, we don’t only waste time, we lose our mojo!
Our resolve to DO becomes smaller and smaller as each day passes.
What once was burning desire, the spark of motivation, fades more and more each day, turning from something we can use to drive our new behaviors or goals into another weight chained to us. An anchor that further submits our stuckness.
Waiting is an aspirations killer.
Each day you wait to start is not only a wasted day but also a step further away from who you want to become and what you want to do.
The perfect time does not exist. You make it.
You will never wake up one day completely free of nerves and excuses and run to the gym.
It doesn’t work like that. Instead, you wake up one day, look in the mirror and realize you and your bullshit excuses are the only things holding you back. You look yourself in the eye and understand deeply you cannot wait another day because each day you hold off on taking care of yourself is another day spent telling yourself you do not matter. Your happiness and health are not worth the effort.
Is that ok?? No.
Does that mean it will not be hard, take some effort, and some schedule juggling? Also no.
It means you finally understand that effort, schedule juggling, and FEAR are NEVER going away.
You are simply ready to finally face them because your dreams and happiness matter.
Goals attached to our bodies and how we treat ourselves are the ones that die the easiest. They are also the ones that are the heaviest to carry, and they affect every other aspect of our life. This is why almost always you must start there UNLESS you already have that area sowed up, and you feel great in your skin.
Turning your back on yourself tells your subconscious shit you do not want to be telling it.
Every day you desire to change but do not make it; you tell yourself you are not worth it. You are not worth the effort, and worse than that, you are not capable of the discipline required to do it.
This is bullshit for hundreds of reasons.
Mainly because it is not valid. I see this every day at the gym. Women who have done amazing things! Birthed babies have great careers, put themselves through school, yet they can’t make peace with their bodies. Because that one small aspect of their life is not as they wish, they believe that is who they are, someone who cannot accomplish. It is bullshit and rarely accurate, yet we believe it.
We make this worse by attaching bullshit markers to measure our “progress” with ourselves. Progress in quotations because that word in the context of our bodies is silly. We do not need to worry about progress.
Are we treating ourselves kindly and in a manner that makes us feel good? That is all we need to be focused on. Using anything else is noise that will only muddy up the water. Also, why we fail, we are judging ourselves all wrong, thinking if the scale doesn’t move or our jeans do not fit within three weeks, we have failed.
Wrong. And bullshit.
If you showed up for three weeks for yourself, you didn’t fail. You won. You succeeded hugely. See that and celebrate it.
Because mistake number two is quitting.
Every time you quit on yourself, you make starting the next time that much harder.
Once you start, you must keep going, no matter what. It can be slow, you can take a break, but you cannot stop. Know the difference between pausing and quitting is enormous.
Because as soon as you start, you are.
As soon as you start, you are.
You don’t have to fall into the lie that you are TRYING to make a change. You have started, which means you have changed.
Run with that. Let that be your identity.
Start. Start scared. Start small and start now. Know that as soon as you start, you are half way there. All you need to do is
keep moving forward. Breaks are fine. Quitting is not. (and quitting on yourself, not acceptable in any circumstances).
Waiting is wasting time.
Waiting is your bullshit at work… trust me, I was the queen of “I will start tomorrow…”
Nothing good comes of putting yourself on the backburner.
Tell yourself you are worthy and mean it.
Then go out and do it.