I'm writing today to catch you in your procrastination rut, your limbo zone, you're "I'll start tomorrow" feels...
Join me as I uncover a little thing everyone has access to: beginning.
In our journeys through life, there will be many hallways we venture down and many doors we have to go through. Each hallway symbolizes a different journey, and each door a different stage of it.
Think of those long hallways, and how daunting they seem stretching on and on submerging into one common endpoint in front of us (often we can't even see this endpoint).
It is at the beginning of these long hallways - big journeys - that most people pause. More like stop. Procrastinate. (Or take pictures in my case.) We let the motion sensor lights in the hallway switch off, which makes the journey down the hallway ten times more daunting.
Going through the first door of a hallway is a threshold moment - you take your first steps forward. This action of moving forwards ensures the motion sensor lights remain on. It ensures your journey stays alight.
What does walking through the first door look like on your journey?
It could be turning the first page of a book you've been intending to read or putting on your workout gear to begin a HIT session.
The little thing I want to uncover today: the act of beginning.
Going back to the very beginning, it was others that began us. Another person opened the first door for us (thanks Mum).
But that was only the first door of our first beginning.
Since then, we have gone through so many doors. And yet still, there are so many more beginnings waiting for us.
So what is stopping us from moving forward to keep the hallway lights on?
When we think about beginning we are visited by feelings of hesitation, uncertainty, and anticipation - these feelings make our hearts beat fast, particularly if we care a lot about what it is we are beginning.
Often it is these feelings that prevent us from starting the walk down the long hallway ahead because we get overwhelmed.
While the thought of beginning brings on anxiety; the action of beginning creates feelings of excitement, empowerment, and enthusiasm within us.
These emotions are positive and release oxytocin. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that shuts off the receptors in the amygdala - a part of the brain that generates the fear and anxiety you were feeling in the first place.
Think about the championship game you've been preparing for or the first day of class - for weeks you've been getting anxious about it but once you walk out onto the field or into the class you are relieved of the anxiety and instead overcome by excitement.
So if we only think about beginning we will allow feelings of fear and anxiety to overwhelm us - it will stop us from going through the first door. The motion sensor lights will stay switched off.
But, if we can act on our beginning, these feelings will no longer be what is stopping us. We will light up our journey!
We can't just think about beginning, we must go out there and begin!!
Take control of your journey, and feel power over the task ahead.
Doing so will release the excitement, empowerment, and enthusiasm you need to take to open the book, or complete the first squat.
Beginning seems little in comparison to the journey ahead, but it is a not so little thing.
Go through the first door.
Begin.
Beginning is a not so little thing.