Starting Over (and over and over)

Each day is a chance to start over.

Each moment is an opportunity to bring yourself into the present moment, releasing the anger about the past or the anxiety about the future.  Each new sunrise gives you the openness of a new day, a day you can deliberately choose to live in support of your dreams or not.

You have a choice.  Today is offering itself up to YOU.

That thing you keep talking about doing or being… It doesn’t have to be big.  It doesn’t have to be world changing. It doesn’t have to matter to anyone but you.

But you do need to do it.

Now.

It doesn’t matter to me if you didn’t start yesterday.  I don’t care if you’ve been thinking about it for years without doing anything about it.  Those choices to put it off?  They are in the past.

You can make a different choice today.  It’s completely within your power, gorgeous.

Maybe it feels like you’ve already started?  You’ve read a dozen books, talked to several experts, and immersed yourself in the peripheral culture.   All that preparation is not the same as action.  Gathering inspiration and knowledge is vital, but when you’re using it to procrastinate or as a protective shield, it’s not helping you one bit.

If you’re feeling paralyzed or overwhelmed, stop preparing.  Start doing.  Begin being.

Action can arm you with just as much clarity as thought.

Want to meditate?  Awesome.  Get your butt on a cushion with an egg timer.  Like now.

Want to be kinder towards your family?  Great.  Think of one action you can do immediately and do it.  Write a letter of forgiveness?  Skip cleaning the kitchen and have a special date with one of your kids this morning?  Send your mom a goofy present in the mail?

Want to start an Etsy shop?  Rockin’.  Take the first step. Whether that’s opening your account, photographing your art, or coming up with an name for your crafty genius- take one small action now.

Start over today.  And then start over again tomorrow.

Once you create a little momentum, you can plot and develop and set some juicy goals and recruit accountability. I’m still a big fan of all those supportive methods of sustaining a big dream.

I also realize that we can get overwhelmed by all that planning and never actually START.

(Insert me giving you a huge bear hug, looking you straight in the eyes, and asking you, “Honey- what do you want to do TODAY?  Let’s do it.  Let’s blow off some plans or work or cleaning the closet and start something.  I’m so, so in.”)

I’m feeling intimately familiar with this concept of starting over, as I’ve landed in a new city, with a new apartment, new schedule (hello early mornings!), and new family responsibilities.  I’m trying my best to craft supportive days for my business, my sanity, my art, my playfulness.

Some days I’ve failed.  Some days I’ve rocked it.

It’s this beginner mindset–this realization that each day is brand new–that is really helping me.

So what if I threw myself a little pity party yesterday because I miss my familiar city and my pals?  Today, I can embrace the adventure of a new neighborhood by hopping on my bike and meeting my banker.   So what if I haven’t actually gone swimming in that huge pool two blocks away?  Today,  I can break out my goggles and dive in.

Literally.

What are you going to dive into today? What are you going to start?  I’d love to hear.