Even the greatest artist in the world begins her masterpiece with one single stroke. A pencil line strewn across the canvas that often looks like a child’s scribble. Even God, or the creator, or the eternal life force, began the work of creation with a single celled organism.

So who are you and I to think that we should get things right in the first shot?

Yet, it is precisely this that stops us from making a beginning, from starting. I meet countless people, of all ages, who say - I want to start writing, I want to paint again, I want to be fit, I want to learn an instrument, I want to start a movement, I want cook, I want to do business, etc. I want to. I want to. I want to. But they haven’t begun. Or they have stopped.

What’s stopping them?

Guilt & fear.

The guilt of not being able to continue with the desired level of consistency.

The fear of not being as good as they’d like to be.

We keep thinking. We keep making plans in our mind. We keep postponing.

Don’t allow guilt and fear to stop you from starting anymore. Put down your first stroke. Don’t worry about how ugly it looks.

Start.

And if you stop, or stutter, or falter, just hold on to one magic word.

Restart.