My Virtual Reading Room

There's something that you want to change, something that you want to embark upon, something that you want to fix, something that you want to learn, something you want to begin?

What if you began it today?

Why not? I mean, it has to start somewhere, right? If you're really serious about it and really curious about it, wouldn't it be better to begin today than to begin tomorrow? And certainly today is better than next Wednesday, or the middle of November, 2017?

Listen, I know that beginnings are difficult. Don Shula famously said: "The start is what stops most people," and he's right — we all get intimidated by the sheer emptiness of possibility at the beginning of any worthy endeavor. I have never once sat down to write the first sentence of a new book without laughing aloud at the ridiculousness of the whole scenario. It's so absurd to begin things! There's me, perched on a chair, expectant and clueless, fingers hovering over the keyboard, baffled and overwhelmed, like, "Um...."

Where the hell do you even begin?

The answer is usually: "You begin right here, right now."

You type one word, and — voila! — it begins.

It's often simpler than we think.

Sometimes it's scary, how simple it is — how close it is.

It's right in front of you, right within reach.

In his brilliant new book "Consolations", the British poet David Whyte says that beginnings are so difficult precisely BECAUSE they are simple — because they demand "a radical internal simplification". Before you can begin anything of consequence, you must throw away so much useless garbage and clutter out of your mind. Specifically, you need to throw away all the unhelpful, distracting, out-of-date, and worn-out old stories that you have been telling yourself for years. (What kind of stories, exactly? Stories like: "I'm too lazy", or "I'm too busy", or "I'm too broke", or "I'm too broken", or "I'm too fat", or "I'm too sad", or "I'm too tired", or "I'm too much of a loser", or "I'm too stupid", or "I'm too slow", or "I'm too disorganized", or "It's too late for me"...)

Those old parts of yourself need to go before you can begin your brave new adventure. The problem is, those old parts of yourself don't want to go, and they will fight against your efforts to try anything new...but you have to fight back, because they REALLY need to go. They need to go, because they are telling you what David Whyte calls "the old complicated story" — the story about how impossible everything is for you.

What you need right now is the new simple story.

And the new simple story is merely: "I'm doing this."

Begin today.

ONWARD,
LG