The Courage to Start

I’ve been thinking about the word “courage” for the past week or so.  For some folks courage has to do with a belief, a leap of faith if you will, that enables them to face difficult situation. The photo on this blog is a picture that I think represents the key to courage, just starting. I took the photo at a recent event I participated in, the USAT Long Course National Championship in Myrtle Beach SC.    

Suffice to say that I had a tough day, but I finished and my placement was good enough to make the USA National Team and give me the opportunity to compete in the ITU World Long Course Championship to be held next July in Spain. The key to finishing this race was simply that I had to start.  My starting point wasn’t even the same day of the event.  My starting point was actually almost exactly seven years ago.

As you may recall in my first blog post, I shared that I was once an overweight couch potato.  Well, today marks the seven year anniversary of the day that I applied a little bit of courage to change my lifestyle and get in control of a few things.  If I hadn’t had the courage to start that process seven years ago then I wouldn’t have accomplished quite a few things in the last seven years, not just athletically, but in other personal areas and even in my professional life as well.  I
found that once I took that first step, once I simply started, the rest was comparatively easy.  Sure I’ve had a few bumps on the road but it all comes down to starting. I found that starting wasn’t that hard and all I really needed to do was keep starting.  Once I started the first time I knew I could start any time.  Some days I just had to make sure I started that day, or even the next hour.  Just start.

So what’s holding you back from taking that first step?  What is holding you back from just starting?  Remember you can never finish unless you first start.