What's The Hardest Part? Getting Started, Of Course!

The great author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was once asked what was the hardest part of writing a book?  

“Getting started!” he responded!  

How many things have you ever wanted to do in your life that at the moment you thought were great ideas but you never started? It’s a tough question. But now lets present a tougher one. What would it take to get you started? That is the $1 million dollar answer with no lifelines allowed.  

Many great quotes can be used here but the best would be Mahatma Ghandi saying, “A journey of one thousand miles begins with a single step.” Millions of people have millions of intentions and millions of ideas and millions of brainstorms and millions of goals and have never followed the idea with a single step.  

How many great ideas have you had? Answer: too many.  

There are two major and one minor factors (call it two and a half factors) that play a primary roll in taking that very important first step. Whether it is entering a pageant, beginning a profession, chasing a dream. One is the “Roll Over Factor”, one is the “I’m Gonna Factor” and the half is the “I Did Factor”.

 

The Roll Over Factor

The “Roll Over Factor” deals with your personal self-discipline and your personal dedication, which lies somewhere between getting things done and personal excellence. Your alarm goes off. You hit the snooze button and roll over. And the alarm goes off again and the process is repeated. Only this time you hit the off button and roll over. Thinking to yourself each time “I really know I should get up, but I just really don’t feel like it!”  

An old saying goes “Oh sluggard how long will you sleep?” directly from the Book of Proverbs.  

The “Roll Over Factor” is the easiest one to explain because each of us has done it no less than a hundred times (in the past six months!) You know you gotta do it, you know you should do it, you’ve been thinking about doing it, and even more you’ve made a goal of getting it done. However at the present time you haven’t taken that first step! Many of you have gotten out of bed but still haven’t taken that first step.

 

Author’s Personal Experience

At one time in my life I was a very dedicated athlete. I would wake up in the morning, often before dawn, and would put on running clothes suited for the season’s weather. That first jog of the morning would be what would separate me from the other competitors and teammates was my motivation. Two miles, three miles, ten miles, whatever the physical fitness level I needed to be I knew where to push myself to be at peak performance. I never came back from a run that I didn’t feel great (by the way, running doesn’t help you live longer, it just seems longer!). But every run started with my desire for personal excellence and my self-discipline because it was not always easy to take that first step.  

Then I retired from sports and pageants and I quit running. Hey, I had a good excuse (just like you do). I’m busy, I’ve got to speak, I gotta write my next article; I gotta make a sale; I got appointments; I gotta catch a plane.  

Whatever the excuse is, they all came from the same place, “Lame-ville”! Lame! Lame! Lame! And now it’s up to me to take the first step and to return to those thrilling days of yesteryear (ok, not that long ago) where my running leads to the energy really need to operate at my highest levels. And to shed those extra pounds developed by not taking that first step.  

The only way I will reach my goal, or YOUR goal or dream, is to take that first step. Just like you!