Challenge Yourself: Watch What Happens When You Start Today

 Challenge Yourself: Watch What Happens When You Start Today


I am most certainly an advocate for starting things today. But when I tell you that I am the worst at practicing what I preach specifically when it comes to this.. I am ashamed of myself honestly. Eight times out of ten I try not to be hard on myself, but there are times when I need to be, and that’s just life. Sometimes you just have to snap yourself out of it, or snap yourself back into it, whichever fits your situation.


When I tell you how long it took me to even start this post, you would probably experience second-hand shame. My mind has given me countless amounts of excuses on why I shouldn’t start any other day, but were they valid? There are internal obstacles that I need to overcome when it comes to beginning something new. Sharing with the world might provide encouragement if you have a similar issue.


“What better day to start than today?”


If this is something I preach, then why do I feel such a force preventing me from starting? I have had so much good come out of kicking off something immediately, yet I still struggle with initiating the next objective. Is it fear of failing? Fear of succeeding? Fear of what others would think? Am I just overreacting? It’s probably a combination, but I am working on it. I do know that I will 100% encourage someone to be great, even if I am not being great, yet.


What I Think Stops Me:


I’m a mathematician so naturally, I analyze everything, including yours truly. I spend time self-reflecting, self-dissecting, and self-diagnosing just because I like to explore and learn myself. 


I think a lot of the time, I suffer from anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or just plain lack of motivation and energy. I am easily overwhelmed, so sometimes even thinking about performing a task will send me into a spiral. In the most humble way possible, I know I am great and that I will always do well but sometimes I think to myself “what if it goes wrong?” I am a realistic pessimist, which absolutely takes a toll on my forward movement at times. There could be the slightest inconvenience and I think the worst of it. What can I say, I have a very strong imagination and have been exposed to all the drama from reading and television, so it’s very easy for me to think of the most horrible outcome.


Also, I occasionally suffer from depression, which can leave me feeling many different emotions, from sad to indifferent to dead inside to stuck. When this happens, I am pretty much useless simply because my brain cannot reorganize my will to be successful to stand stronger than my will to do nothing. I feel lifeless and like I don’t have the energy to do much.


How I Try to Overcome Unwelcomed Feelings: 


For one, I try to think of some of the things I started “today” that I am FLOURISHING at.


Exhibit A: Going to soccer tryouts

In 8th grade, there was a loudspeaker announcement where they stated soccer tryouts were after school and to meet in whichever room. I turned to my friend and said I wanted to play, and she encouraged me to go, and that was when my soccer journey began. Since then, I’ve also been a walk-on player for CCNY, and that season I was a starter and a champion. To this day, I still play and I love it.


Exhibit B: My hair

Like most black young women, your mom does your hair when you’re little, and once you get older, it’s all in your hands. I’ve done my own texturizers, trims, styles, went natural, everything! All times where I woke up like “Okay, guess I’m doing this today.” Most recently, I’ve decided that I wanted to loc my hair, so I did. Almost three years later and it’s easily in the top 10 best decisions I’ve ever made. 


Exhibit C: Going vegetarian

I’ve always wanted to be vegetarian but had no idea where to start. All it took was a trip to Brazil where the food choices were limited to beef, chicken, and shrimp, two out of three I did not eat. Needless to say, I got tired of beef and on the last day there, I decided that I wasn’t eating meat anymore. I’ve been vegetarian since then and I truly enjoy my colorful plates and all the new things I’ve been able to eat!


Exhibit D: Get serious with writing

In my opinion, I’ve always been pretty decent at writing. Whether it’s an essay, presentation, or whatever, it has come naturally and easily to me. Within the last few years, I have met some people (who are very important to me now) that believed in my writing and intelligence. They’ve inspired me to write a book, journal entries, emails, anything just because they knew I could do it. Little did they know that they were also indirectly pushing me towards my passion, which is why I’m taking writing more seriously today.


I think by now you get the point: starting today can be significant, life-changing, and even the best thing I could do for myself, so I have to just go for it. My love language is words of affirmation, so talking myself up is a thing. I’ll either ask myself questions to talk myself out of the random excuses or boost myself up by thinking of my favorite uplifting statements.


Questions

  • On a scale of 1-5, how much is this (excuse) really stopping me?

  • Am I overreacting?

  • Am I just being lazy?


Quotes

  • "Just try it: you can fix bad, but you can't fix nothing"

  • "Do it afraid"

  • "There's never a good time, just start, before another year passes by without you doing" 

  • "Your choice: 10 min of excuses or 10 min of progress"

  • "Don't worry about the failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don't even try"

  • "You are not a failure if you do more than nothing"

  • "Sometimes all you need is twenty seconds of courage "

  • "Don't be afraid of a hypothetical situation. It doesn't exist"

  • "When people believe in you, believe them "

  • "You didn't wake up today to be a weak ass bitch"

  • "There are people less qualified than you doing the things you want to do, simply because they chose to believe in themselves"


Honestly, re-reading all of the quotes just got me pumped up. I need to stop playing myself. 


Moral of The Story


I need to get out of my head. I am the only person stopping me, and half of the time, the excuse isn’t valid enough. The more I practice “start today” the easier it will become for me. I will stop limiting myself just because my mind likes to use its imagination to scare me off. Starting today can literally lead me to the best things in my life, and it already has (re-read exhibits A-D).


Join me in challenging yourself with starting today. See where it takes you.


You’ve been Cebscribed :)
Location: Charlotte, NC, USA

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