Start Here

You can only start where you are.

Whatever it is you’re trying to get done (exercise more, write a book, go back to school) will only get done by starting where you are, right now, at this very moment. You may still be pining over last year’s attempts to see the inside of a gym; that’s not doing anything for your exercise routine now. You say you’re going to fill out that college application and get that degree next year; that’s not doing anything to further your education now.

While you’re contemplating last year’s incomplete start, you’re contemplating it from here. While you’re dreaming about next year’s start, you’re dreaming about it from here. Which means if anything is actually going to happen, you have to make it happen from here. And so it is – here I am – over fours years after setting up this blog page (yes, four), I’m starting it.

I’ve been at this beginning place before – in March of 2010. I was desperate to lose some of the 40+lbs. I’d gained over the previous few years. For months, I talked about needing to lose the weight – work out, eat better – but I didn’t know where to start, so for a long time, I never did. Finally, after a stranger congratulated me and asked when my baby was due (sad, but true story), I realized that talking about starting a weight loss plan was doing nothing for my actual weight loss. Who knew?! Lol. (Sidebar: mortified by the stranger’s congratulatory inquiry, I actually made up a due date. Too embarrassed to admit that it was Sara Lee, Ben & Jerry that I was carrying with me, and not a little baby.)

Anyway, I started. I didn’t know where to start, so I started right where I was: intimidated by the process, but clear that there were programs that could guide me. At this intersection of intimidation and program knowledge, I decided to simply pay my $19.95 to Weight Watchers (WW) and see where it took me. Too cheap to let $19.95 go to waste (lol), I was compelled to attend a WW meeting just to see what it was about. After a meeting, I was more interested and decided to read the materials. Putting one foot in front of the other (and starting at the unsure place that I was), I went on a journey that led me to a 33lbs. weight loss. Pounds I would have never lost if I hadn’t just started. With that one simple credit card entry.

I realized then (and I realize now as I start this blog and writing journey), that when we over think where we’re trying to get, we scare ourselves from ever starting the journey of getting there. Yes, we must have a goal and see the big picture, but we must also see that we’ll never get there if we don’t take the first step (which often isn’t very big). When you take a flight of steps up, it’s only after you’ve placed your foot on the first step, that you’re positioned to move on to the next one.

According to Stephen King, “The scariest moment is always just before you start.”

As a self-proclaimed delinquent writer, this blog is my start. It will capture life lessons, the impact of family relationships, self-discovery, faith identity, and more. Not from a place that longs for you to see my journey, but from a place that hopes to provide info and start conversations that will make your journey a little more fulfilling.

I’ve been doing a lot of reading about moving forward with my writing, and Robert Lee Brewer made a simple, yet, impactful statement in the 2012 Edition of the Writer’s Market Guide: “Everything in life has to start somewhere and that somewhere is always at the beginning.”

I’m not sure what you’re at the beginning of, but I hope you will start here, and move forward. (If you need some help getting started with something, leave a comment or contact me here. Maybe we can push each other along!

Thanks for being here with me as I start…

Related articles

• It’s not rocket science,well being starts from within… (just a reminder to myself)! (knkylcs.wordpress.com)
• Best Place to Start (Iyanla Vanzant blog)