The Courage to Begin

“Do not be satisfied with the stories that come before you. Unfold your own myth.”

The hardest part of any meaningful work is not the middle, where you are deep in it and momentum carries you. It is not even the end, where you can see the finish line.

The hardest part is the beginning. The moment before you start, when the gap between what you imagine and what you can currently do is at its widest. When the possibility of failure is most vivid. When the voice that says "who do you think you are?" is loudest.

The courage to begin is a specific kind of courage. It is the willingness to be bad at something before you can be good at it. To be a beginner. To not know what you are doing and to do it anyway.

Everything you have ever done well, you once did badly. The beginning is not the obstacle. It is the path.

Related Reflections

Themes that often travel alongside purpose.