Just Begin!

This is where you begin, at the beginning, right where you are in this moment.

You don’t look back, nothing before this moment exists.

You don’t project into the future. Not only can you not imagine what the future holds, I can promise you that you are shaping your future right now, in this moment, with each step you take, with each breath, with the willingness to simply step onto the path and begin. You can change the outcome by being fully alive in this moment.

It begins with being willing to make change, even the tiniest bit of change each day. There you are, standing firmly on your path, no beginning, no end, just the journey ahead. And I can promise you that every step along the way will be momentous. This is my 50th day on this journey and I have changed so much since the beginning I can barely wrap my mind around it, but it happened one day at a time, usually in such tiny increments I couldn’t really feel it in the moment, but in retrospect I am amazed. I am excited, delighted, and curious about what the days ahead will bring, but it doesn’t really matter because I am truly living in each day, as fully as possible, making steps forward so slowly that if you are watching me you probably can’t even see me moving. But I am moving, I am changing, I am growing each and every day, and I have enough momentum going now that I reached what for me was a major tipping point, like the moment in The Wizard of Oz when the scene goes from black and white to full blown technicolor! It is a stunning moment. The gravel path before me, like the one in the picture above, changed. Now I am on the Yellow Brick Road, I know I am on my way to something exciting, and it doesn’t matter what. Just take your first step today. One day your whole life will be awash with light and color, you will be on your way. But for now, just begin. Take a first tiny step. Do one single thing today that is different from yesterday, that points you toward your future, the whole new future you can create. Share it here with us in this community in the comments, let us cheer you on, I will answer your questions and hold your hand. If not now, when?

I got a wonderful comment this morning from a dear one after Day 45, the post on Pipping. She was inspired by the post and she wants to make changes in her life too, but she is afraid that she has so many obligations she must meet that she doesn’t know how she can do it, and she doesn’t want to offend others. This is what I said to her…

“Well, we all have obligations we have to tend to, BUT, you could try the old trick, as a first step, to making a list of all the things you think you HAVE to do and you will probably find that a whole bunch of them you really DON’T have to do. Cross them off your list. Begin by paring down and making more space in your days. You will find that something shifts even when you start to make little changes. I have a quote here on my computer, “Small changes eventually add up to BIG results.” Amen. I started out here by just committing to do one blog post a day and that’s the only change in my life that I made, BUT, as you know, as I kept showing up daily all KINDS of things shifted for me. I became truly happier, I started making plans and having dreams for my future, I started the ketogenic diet a month ago and it has changed my life, and I have my new little secret project started. And every day something new, albeit very likely tiny, pops up and my new growing life expands. Inotherwords just start slowly making small changes and I promise you it will snowball. Perhaps you can’t toss everything away and go into a shell but perhaps you can create a cocoon you can go into as often as possible and in that cocoon begin to build new practices, be still and listen to that voice within and let it direct you onto a whole new path. With very little effort, making one tiny change to begin with, you will be dazzled at the domino effect through your life. It’s like standing at the top of a mountain and you make a little snowball and toss it down the mountain and as it rolls and rolls, picking up more snow along the way, it gets bigger and bigger until it is a HUGE snowball at the bottom! All you have to do right now is to make a tiny snowball and start it rolling down the mountain. You will be amazed what happens.

Keep me posted on your journey. I see big bright happy special things in your future. I’m so excited for you!”

Just begin. Make up your mind that change is possible, that you can have a better life than you have today and you can achieve things you never imagined you could. Know that whatever you have worried your future might hold you have it in your hands, right now, to create a different future for yourself. Don’t focus on the outcome, focus on today, right now, in this moment.

And I want you to do something for me. Take a post-it note, if you don’t have any take a little piece of paper and piece of tape. Write on the paper, “I can DO this!” and tape it up on your computer or somewhere that you will see it frequently throughout your day. Don’t worry about specifics, just know that something incredibly beautiful and exciting is ahead if you just make a commitment to yourself to show up, one day at a time. Perhaps make a 365 day commitment to yourself. (In one year you will make so many changes you can’t even fathom them now if you just keep showing up!) You can do it on a blog, you can do it in your journal, or if you have a planner or calendar you keep you can just make a simple little note to yourself on the calendar each day. Write, “Today I…” Note it and go on, don’t dwell on it and be completely open to whatever a day brings. You have the power, the time is now.

And I will be your accountability partner. You could come here every day and leave me a note here in the comments. It can simply be “I did this today…” and as time goes along you can share how incredible it feels. I will be watching you and cheering you on and so will everyone else.

I used to have a poster on my bedroom wall for years. It was a ballerina leaping through the air, suspended, mid-air, with tremendous beauty and grace. On the poster it said, “If you can imagine it you can achieve it, if you can dream it, you can become it.” I believed it then and I believe it now. I am imagining, and dreaming, and by God, I am becoming! You can too. Come here and start and share your journey with me and the others here. I will hold you in my heart and prayers and I promise you I will be hooting and hollering and cheering so loudly you will be able to hear me from here! Isn’t it time? If not, when will it be? I say this moment is all we have and each one is too precious to lose.

Begin now. Join me on this journey…