“I
will start next week’’ “I need more time” “I have not done enough research” “I
need to get some things in place first””I can’t do it”
any of this ring a bell? Call it procrastination, excuse, fear. Whatever you
choose to call it we have all experienced it at one time or the other or maybe
you still experience it.
But
the truth is even if you get all these conditions in place you probably won’t
start because there will always be another excuse. Something is always wrong
somewhere in the world, nobody is perfect and no condition is perfect, we all
have our flaws and the world can’t be perfect. You are just scared of failure,
scared of what people will say or you think you are not good enough. But the
time is always right to do the right thing, the biggest and hardest step in
life is the first step, the moment you take that step you are on your way.
Martin Luther King Jr once said ‘Faith is taking the first step even when you
don’t see the whole staircase.’
Most of the successful people you see today have one
common regret, they always wish they started earlier. Whatever it is you want
to start doing, at some point you will wish you had started earlier and in the
words of Dorothy Thompson ‘only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to
live.’ So whatever it is that you have been dreaming of, whatever it is that
you have always wanted to do but you are too scared to take the first step or
you keep procrastinating and making up excuses telling yourself why you can’t
do it yet. I want you to know you are not alive yet. You have to stop been
afraid and start living. Just START!
You know how long it took me to start writing this
piece, I kept pushing and postponing until I told myself I had to start from
somewhere and it didn’t have to be perfect. And that was it, there is nothing
wrong with starting small as long as you keep growing. So you start small, grow
soon and keep growing. It’s okay to be normal, it’s okay to start small. The
President was once a citizen, the vice chancellor of a university was once a
student in fact he was once a jambite, the professional was once a learner. So
there is nothing wrong with starting. The problem is if you start and don’t
grow then you become stagnant, but are you actually stagnant or you are moving
backwards.
Let’s picture this, you are No 5 on the chart today,
next week same position, and in two weeks time you are not improving so you
believe you are in the same position then you say you are stagnant. No! you are
not stagnant, in reality you are moving backwards. There are only two options, its
either you are moving forward or you are moving backward. Because if you remain
in the same position, at some point people will overtake you. Others are
working tirelessly to get to the top so why should you stop. Start and don’t
ever look back. Don’t you ever stop, just keep moving.
I leave you with the words of Franklin Roosevelt ‘It is
common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try
another. But above all, try something.’
