Failure to Launch
If the journey of 1,000 miles begins with the first step, why do we fail to start, and how can we make it easier to begin?
It is not about the adequacy or absence of planning. In fact, planning may cause paralysis by analysis. You are still in the profession you wanted to leave years ago because contemplating the innumerable possibilities puts you in a state of suspended animation.
Or, knowing the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry, the inevitable unexpected interruption renders you incapable of acting.
A lengthy, detailed plan may be too daunting and left undone. Would you begin training for a marathon if you knew about the 1,000 miles of running required before reaching the starting line?
Nor is the failure to launch caused by failing to know your “why.” The most compelling “why” is good health; your life literally depends on it. Yet, you still have not instituted the eating or exercise program you have promised yourself for years.
Lacking the Smallest Action
We expect to launch with trumpets blaring and to great fanfare. It can, but it is unnecessary. A minor action, even one that does not make any perceptible progress toward the goal, can set into motion the journey to accomplishment.
Any action consistent with your objective activates the law of inertia in your favor. Inertia is commonly expressed as, “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion continues moving.”
Sometimes, a start may not make any apparent progress. One man who lost 100 pounds set an initial goal to stop gaining weight. By definition, this objective is ineffective; maintaining weight is not losing weight. However, he crucially stopped the opposing inertia of consistently gaining weight.
He then set a target of losing one pound per week, which he accomplished by cutting one food from his diet. After a month, he set out to lose two pounds per week which he met by walking one hour weekly. Once initiated, inertia took over, and he did not stop executing and enhancing his program until he lost 100 pounds.
A start can arise from a half-hearted act. Legions of addicts (probably most), thinking they do not belong and without any intention of joining the program, begin their journey to sobriety by walking into a room hosting a 12-step meeting.
A start may be merely creating convenience. Despite knowing that flossing is critical to oral health and suffering my dentist and hygienist’s disapproving looks for years, I did not floss. At my wit’s end, I put some easy-to-use floss picks in a readily accessible place next to my toothpaste.
Since I could not fathom flossing all my teeth every day, the picks remained unused but called out to me like Edgar Allan Poe’s Telltale Heart. I relented but “agreed” only to floss my molars and then only two days per week. Of course, the seed had been sown, and I could not stop the inevitable harvest. Slowly and steadily, I added teeth and days until I became a flossing devotee.
Still do not believe? Starting has been the answer for you many times. Recall all those school and work projects that you fretted over for days or weeks only to discover that once started, you spent much more time and energy worrying about them than actually doing them.
The Least You Can Do
Small actions are easily attainable, easily executed, and activate inertia. Once the first action is taken, you naturally continue adding to the program until you reach your goal.
“Motivation” is intentionally missing from this message because small starts do not require much motivation. I did not need to muster the courage to floss all my teeth daily to put floss sticks in my toothpaste drawer. Showing up for one AA meeting is much easier than putting down the glass for the rest of your life.
Is there something you want to do but have not started? What is that small, maybe tiny, act you can perform that will serve as the catalyst to taking the remaining action needed to accomplish the goal?
Remember, great oaks from little acorns grow.
