“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase ~ Martin Luther King, Jr”
A challenge for many of us – regardless of our past successes and failures – is often getting going. Taking that first step can be daunting. It can be even more difficult when we know what we want, we know what we should be doing, we know where we want to end up – yet we don’t necessarily see all of the steps we need to get from where we are to where we want to go.
It’s human nature to want to deal with certainty. Instinctively, we will shy away – we will often do what it takes – to avoid the unknown. This can often mean that when the path before us isn’t always clear – when we can’t see all of the stairs ahead of us – our inclination is to not even take that first step.
I wish I could say that my own experience has shown me that there comes a point where we don’t always need to see the path ahead of us clearly in order to just get going. With every new thing I want to tackle, I have to go through the self-talk. It does get easier. Successes do stack up. Our filters – where we learn over time that often just moving forward – adjust so that overcoming fear becomes much easier.
The best advice I can give is that when you know what you want, when it feels right – just do the first thing you need to in order to set things in motion. Figure out as many of the steps as you can right now. The rest of the steps will become clear over time – and like climbing a seemingly insurmountable staircase – sometimes we just need to be able to see the step or two in front of us to get to the top.
