The secret to getting ahead is getting started.
The title of today’s post is a saying sometimes attributed to Mark Twain, Sally Berg, or Agatha Christie, though there’s no actual sourcing for any of that.
Regardless, the wisdom of the quote is clear. In order to get ahead, you have to be going. And in order to be going, you have to get started.
This is in line with an idea in Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear. In Chapter 13 of the book (which I am thoroughly enjoying and telling everyone about), he deals with “How to Stop Procrastinating by Using the Two-Minute Rule.” The “Two-Minute Rule” says that you should scale any habit (or habitual action) that you want to form down to its two-minute version.
“‘Read before bed each night’ becomes ‘Read one page.’ . . . ‘Fold the laundry’ becomes ‘fold one pair of socks.’” Putting aside the fact that I question Mr. Clear’s ability to fold socks (2 minutes for a single pair seems excessive, no?), the principle is a really great one. The important thing is to start.
Once you start, it is easier to keep going. It’s like Newton’s first law of motion, sometimes called the “law of inertia”: An object at rest stays at rest; an object in motion stays in motion with the same velocity and in the same direction unless acted upon by an external force. And yes, this particular law of physics works with humans, too: a human body at rest tends to stay there (Netflix binge anyone?), and a body in motion tends to stay that way as well (taking a walk, or running errands).
If you are looking to get going in any area of your life, whether it’s decluttering, exercise, changing your eating habits, learning a new language (or other subject or skill), or change a relationship or a job, you will first have to set your intention, and then make a start. It’s that simple, and that hard.
If there’s a goal you have, but you can’t figure out how to get started, or what to do next, I hope you will get in touch and take advantage of my offer of a free 30-minute discovery call to see if working with me as your life coach might be a good fit. If you’re interested, shoot me an email, or fill out the contact form here on the site and I’ll reach out to you.
Today, as this post goes live on the interwebs, I was supposed to be in the hospital, recovering from an involved endoscopic procedure to divest my duodenum of adenoma, hopefully before it has a chance to morph into something malignant. Instead, it turns out to be a BFD, and will need a longer, more involved procedure, provided that yesterday’s biopsies come back as benign. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t remind you that The Declutter Course is still open for registration, but registration closes this Saturday. You can read last week’s blog post about it here. So if you want to opt in for a six-week, online group coaching program that will help you to declutter your home, I hope you will join us!
