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I’ve never liked to start at the beginning.
I want to start in the middle and skip all the beginners’ stuff. I’ve always wanted to be the expert right from the start. On anything I do.
Maybe it’s the youngest child syndrome coming out in me. I grew up seeing all of my siblings ahead of me. I just wanted to be where they were.
I remember when I was little my parents would say, “Just wait. Let’s do this first” and I would buck like a bronco that wanted to get out and go.
Even at an early age, I had no patience for baby steps.
If I wanted to learn something, I usually started in the middle.
I think it was 1/2 excitement to be done and 1/2 arrogance that the beginning didn’t apply to me.
I would evaluate all the steps and then skip ahead of what I thought I already knew.
But I realize that approach doesn’t always serve me.
I would often try to start in the middle of my weight loss. I never started small with lifestyle changes; I would go full force and make huge changes all at once. This practice would lead to burnout very quickly and contributed to my gain/loss cycle.
So I tried something novel.
I recently started at the beginning of something.
It sounds so trite, but it was huge for me.
I love to run and want to get back into running shape. So I got a 0-5K app and I made myself start from the beginning.
The pace was slower than what I could already run- I could have started at week 3 of the program. And I really, really wanted to.
But I decided that I will follow this program to the letter.
Which includes starting at the beginning.
It was hard. My ego had a field day with it. ‘I can go so much farther than this.’ ‘I’m in better shape than they think I am.’ ‘I should be pushing myself to do more.’ ‘I don’t need to take a day off.’
I accepted that I’m not an expert and the beginning does apply to me.
I took a deep breath and let go of the reins.
I accepted that I am not an expert at running. I’m certainly not an expert at training runners to go farther.
And I made the decision to give up control and let the app lead me.
And I’m so glad I did.
I learned so much faster by biting my tongue and backtracking a bit. The biggest lesson being that I wasn’t backtracking at all.
I’m running farther and faster than I ever would if I had started at week 3.
If I didn’t start from the beginning, I would have burned out by now, my body could have been injured from pushing too hard and I wouldn’t have had a chance to perfect my running form.
So I’m changing my system.
And I’m letting go of the thoughts that aren’t serving me:
‘I already know that’
‘I can skip that’
‘That doesn’t apply to me’
And I’m giving beginnings a chance.
Because you can’t build an amazing house without a strong foundation. And that’s exactly what a good beginning can give you.
The new thoughts that serve me are:
‘Beginnings apply to me’
‘Creating a strong foundation is an expert move.’
I feel like a pro already.
