Often, we approach life and our work with an all or nothing attitude, which in the long run ends up degrading and sabotaging our momentum and our effort. The temptation to do everything or nothing at all should never be an option, unless of course you are facing some pretty dire moral dilemmas, but most things in life, require a steady, imperfect, consistent, but tenacious forward motion.
It doesn’t matter how much you get done today. It doesn’t matter how much further you get ahead. What truly matters is that you do something, because in the final analysis, something is never nothing.
You can’t improve on nothing. You can’t show nothing to anyone. You can’t redo nothing. You can’t fix nothing. You can’t add to nothing. You cannot even throw nothing away, because there is nothing there to begin with.
But you can do lots with something. You can do lots with old, tired, failed experiences. When you have something, anything, you no longer have to reach back, all the way to the very beginning. If you are enrolled in the wrong degree program at University. You don’t have to abandon everything you’ve done and start again. You are older. Smarter. Know your way around the place. You just have to refocus and change direction. The detour is never as long or as costly as if you did nothing at all.
There is no experience in nothing. There everything to be learned in something. And it doesn’t matter if you succeed or fail, there is a lesson in everything that you do, but only if make a commitment to move, to act, and engage in life.
Something is not nothing.
Go and do something. Take a step forward. Don’t second guess the direction and get too concerned about the outcome. That will come later. Take some time in your day to plan the something that needs doing. Write it down. Put a timeline on it. Put it somewhere you can see it and ultimately do something about it. Start with the smallest things. There is great pleasure in getting stuff done. Work on the small things and start getting at the big things. But no matter what get involved and show that you are serious about all the things your mouth keeps flapping about. Show your worth because people love helping other people who want to get something done. No-one lends a hand to a half baked idea that will never see the light of day by the end.
Nobody wants their time or resources wasted, but you would be surprised how many people will come out of unexpected places and carry you and help you along your way.
They have to see you moving. They have to see you trying. They have to know that you’re serious and that you are not going to stop one way or another, and that is when the magic happens. That is when God smiles, the universe opens her arms, and all of existence seems to line up with deep anticipation to help you.
No more I can’t, not me, and I’m not ready. Of course you’re not ready. You’re undertaking something that has never been done before. You are becoming someone who has never existed before. Of course you’re not ready and you’re going to make lots of mistakes.
The key to success is being comfortable with failure.
Do something. Do something today.
Even if its only for a few minutes.
Cover photo generously provided by photographer FaJohan Desaeyere via unsplash.com
