One, Two, Buckle my shoe

“You cannot afford to wait for perfect conditions. Goal setting is often a matter of balancing timing against available resources. Opportunities are easily lost while waiting for perfect conditions.” ~ Gary Ryan Blair

Ah… Libra – the beginning of a New Year. New choices. New beginnings. We make our New Year’s resolutions and intend, in earnest, to abide by them. But how often do our New Year’s resolutions fall by the way side?

How often do you find yourself saying, “I’ll get to the gym as soon as things at work calm down.” Or “I’ll finish my MBA as soon as the kids finish school.” Or “Just one more week and then I’ll quit smoking.” We have all these good intentions, all these goals we wish to attain, and all we need now are the perfect conditions to start.

Perfect conditions? Perfect conditions, REALLY?! If only. Procrastination and indecision are the seedlings of fear. Period. The only reason we don’t start is because we are scared and overwhelmed at the prospect of the final outcome. If you think about it, very often we don’t start something until we are sure of the final outcome. We forget that everything is a process, even the simplest of things like learning to tie your shoelaces as a child.

Do you remember the joy you experienced when you finally managed to tie your shoe, on your own – the absolute and utter joy and amazement that you did it without anyone to help you? The reason you felt that way is because the process wasn’t easy at first. We all struggled, some more than others, the under, over, loop-wrap-around eluded even the best of us, but when we got it, we got it. And now when you tie your laces, you don’t even give it a second thought, do you? No, it just becomes a part of your everyday life.

Start right now. Don’t wait for the perfect conditions. Make the decision to start right now. Now is the perfect time. It’s the month of Libra and we already know, from my last post that it’s a great time to start taking action.

As Ralph Marston says, “The circumstances will not be perfect and you won’t get it perfect. Start now, however, and you will get it done.”

Don’t spend your time worrying about what the ending’s going to look like. Because the ending very often changes after you have gone through the process leading up to where you thought you would go. Think about it, would you ever walk into a movie with only the last fifteen minutes of the film left? No, you wouldn’t, you’ve already missed the story, what would the point of that be? What would you have understood or enjoyed from it, without living the experience?

Try not to fixate on getting other people’s approval or assistance – this is your journey, your process, so focus on your day-to-day progress. Opportunity is dangling right before your eyes, seize the moment! Viva!

Buckle up! It’s going to be a wonderful ride, with possibly a few unexpected but exhilarating bumps along the way.

JOURNAL:

Set yourself one goal this week. It can be anything, as long as it’s something you can manifest by Friday.
Don’t plan a strategy. Don’t think about how you are going to do it.
Just do it.