A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. (Chinese Proverb)
You just need to start. You may not have everything all figured out. (Even with the best planning, you still won’t have it all planned out to the detail you might want.) But sometimes, you just gotta’ start. Stop all this stuff about “I don’t have enough time.” That is a poverty mindset. You have the same 24 hours as everyone else. You DO have enough time to start. Start with 5 minutes if that’s all the time you have. Just do something. “I don’t know enough…” Again, poverty mindset: You know enough to start. The things you don’t know can be learned along the way. “Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do!” (Proverbs 4:7) Even after you become an expert in your area, you’ll never know everything anyway. We are all constantly learning. Even after a lifetime of learning, none of us will know a thimbleful of the knowledge in the universe. You are good at some things and you know enough to start.
“I’m afraid I’ll fail!” The fear of failure has kept more people from success than actual failure itself. Sorry to say, we all fail. After a few times, you realize failure doesn’t kill you. It may wound your pride and hurt your feelings, but it doesn’t kill you. In fact, a strong case can be made that failing a lot is the path to success. Abraham Lincoln failed over and over and over before he finally became 1 of the greatest presidents in U.S. history. He failed his way to success.
You may not be able to finish the day you start but nobody else can either. You have enough time to start. You won’t know everything at the beginning, but you’ll learn. You’ll fail a lot but that is the path to success. It may be (probably will be) a very imperfect start. It may be a short time with not as much accomplished as planned. But there is great power in small beginnings. “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin,….” (Zechariah 4:10).
Small habits done daily are easier to keep going than devoting huge blocks of time. Effective use of small amounts of time add up to big wins in the long term.
Want to write a novel? That’s 1 word, 1 sentence, 1 page at a time, 1 review, 1 sale at a time.
Want to paint a masterpiece? Be ready with 1 brush stroke, 1 bad painting, 1 good painting, over and over until you finally create what you’ve been trying to.
Want to run a marathon? That’s 1 step, 1 foot, 1 yard, 1 mile at a time until you hit 26.2 miles.
Want to learn a new skill? That’s 1 class, 1 homework assignment, 1 new book read at a time.
Want to be financially independent? That’s $1 saved and invested at a time, then letting time, patience, and compound interest do the work.
Like compound interest, small amounts of time used wisely, compound over time into habits that bring long-term success. Taken individually, they may not seem to amount to much; but if you add them together, you can finish your great American novel, paint your masterpiece, run a marathon, up-skill and improve, become financially stable, all with just a little time devoted every day.
But you gotta’ start. YOU. GOTTA’. START!
What are you waiting for? Get moving…..