On Your Mark

What do my wife, Marcus Aurelius and Alexis Carrel have in common? They have all understood the value of starting. My wife is a flute player. She has often said, “The hardest part about practicing is opening the flute case. Marcus Aurelius put it this way “To begin is half the work…” I like how Alexis Carrel phrased it, “Life leaps like a geyser to those who drill through the rock of inertia.

In my last post about rebounding I talked about the value of doing hard things. It’s tough for me to start on hard things. That’s mostly what makes them hard. The hardest part about writing a blog post is starting. It often doesn’t come out the way I want on the first try, but editing is much easier than starting. And of course if I don’t start I have nothing to edit.

When I was a kid at the ranch we didn’t have a four wheel drive pickup, so it was often hard to get to places we needed to be because the terrain was muddy. My dad would drive very fast through the swampy parts. He would have me put my feet up on the dashboard for protection. Once after a particularly exciting ride, we got to our destination and he said, “There is much to be said for momentum.” I have always remembered that. 

Without starting there is no momentum. I always have to start somewhere. The more often I drill through the rock of inertia, the easier it is to do it again the next time.

May you have enough today, one moment at a time.