False Starts, Falling Down, & Other Fiascos

Months of silence following the publication of my first book, I awoke with the urge to write — new thoughts and ideas swirling about as if awakening from a long, extended nap. Resisting the temptation to fall back to sleep and with coffee firm in hand, I pushed myself beyond urge and into action, determined to get back on track.

It’s been over two years since I‘ve published my work with any regularity — each false start making it more difficult to know how to begin again. Purging and sorting through a mountainous pile of clutter that did more to squash ideas than birth them, it begged the question of ‘why’. Why, for example, was I at times trading strong execution for weak excuses, and in doing so, settling for mediocrity? Why was I abandoning my voice, when part of my passion and purpose involves teaching others how to find and leverage their own? How might the fear of failure or perhaps even of success be causing me to self-sabotage in ways that are denying me my dreams? 

In times past, I leaned heavily into excuses (and denial) — quicker to defend them than my own sense of worth, voice, and values. I was also guilty of lingering a little too long in the external accolades of past achievement, as if they might somehow excuse me from the business of continued creation, contribution, and impact. Such is the way (and perils) of the ego. 

If we’re not careful, default behaviors become habitual, even when they don’t serve our highest purpose or goals. 

In the sorting and rummaging through reams of disjointed thoughts tossed casually about, I was reminded that the discipline of taking committed action, however small, is a far more reliable friend than inspiration alone, and that the possibility of failing (forward) is far less risky than the opportunity cost of doing nothing at all.
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Whatever your path and wherever you might be trying to go; whatever the stumbles along the way, falling down is not an excuse to avoid getting back up, procrastination is the enemy of progress, and one false start (or even 100) does not have to prevent you from achieving forward momentum when finally get moving again. The important thing is to keep going. 

As for the unforeseen fiascos of life? Experience continues to teach me that a little humor goes a long way, and when we finally choose to disconnect from the drama, we have so much more energy to give ourselves, our dreams, and those with whom we choose to journey!
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I’m curious to know…
Whatever the ‘why’ — be it a self-imposed struggle or a series of unfortunate events, how do you begin again when you’ve had a false start? How do you get back up after falling down? Have you ever allowed self-sabotaging behaviors to drown out your dreams? How can you find humor in the inevitable fiascos of life instead of allowing them to pull you off center?

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