The Courage to Begin

In my limited (though more than I’d like to admit) trips around the Sun in this lifetime, I’ve come to this definition of success for any area of life:

• Risk consistently
• Fail confidently
• Learn fervently
• Repeat passionately  

I’m not saying the above is original (I’m sure I’ve absorbed it from many sources).

I’m also not saying that I live by it in all that I do (I don’t).

But I do believe in it.  The older I get, the more I understand that the old wisdom that says tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us is…well…true.  As the invincibility of youth makes way for the understanding of experience, we each inherently know this to be the case as much as we’d like to fight it.  

If you want to be more in your job – do the work, release your passion for it, and keep on trying until you succeed, switch jobs, or create a new path you didn’t expect.  

If you want to love, but are afraid, nervous, or holding back for whatever reason – take the leap!  You might not find the right person on your first try (or your 300th), but you’ll never know unless you jump and go all in with another person.  

If you want to be a better son, daughter, mother, father, friend – whatever that area of your life is – learn, read, ask questions – do the work to become the person you want to be.  Sometimes it can be as easy as listening more.    

The point is, we all have this capability.  We all have the power of making a choice and seeing it through until the end.  Living, loving, risking and succeeding are all about a single action: choice.  Take the first step.  I can’t promise you immediate success, but I can promise you this: at the end of the day, when the Sun has set and the night threatens to overtake the promise that each new day ushers in you’ll be able to face the night standing tall, proud, and ready for the secrets that it reveals.  

The courage to begin is the armor of success. Put it on.