A beautiful quote to spur you on ....

I read this quote over a year ago, from Robyn Davidson. I actually try to think about it over and over, to remind myself that it's OK when I feel daunted, scared, sad....

There's only one skill, really, or rather one skill subsumes all the others: the ability to take the first step, and then the next one, and then just keep going. It is surprisingly difficult to acquire such an apparently simple skill. Being human, we tend to confuse the first step with the whole journey and our courage fails. We see all the difficulty and problems ahead, magnified in the imagination, instead of looking at the group in front. We baulk at that first little step, and nothing is achieved. 

As I navigate the first, fledgling steps on unknown roads in few different areas of my life, I reflect on this. It's really, really difficult (especially for anxious people like me) to turn off the scary voice of doom and ignore the distance between here and where we would like to be, and to simply just move on calmly, blissfully and without panic. I think that we all conflate the first step with the whole journey -  I think this is probably how countless plans, projects, businesses, ideas and pursuits end up in the scrap heap before they've commenced - they've been sabotaged at the outset by our wonderful but very sneaky brains. I often wonder why this is the case, and can only assume (for my part at least) that for some of us, it's our brain trying to prevent us from taking a risk, from accepting that we may fail.

One thing I've found particularly effective at knocking this little phenomenon on the head is to consider how far we've come, when we feel daunted. To think about all our big and small achievements and use them as arsenal to propel ourselves forward on those days that taking even the first step feels too difficult.

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Things that give me joy...

Post work out highs.

When my dogs do something super silly (like tonight when Holly saw one of our neighbours come home with pizza and followed them into their apartment).

Nice smelling candles.

Brunch, with newspaper.

My husband.

Bliss balls.

Fabulous books, especially history books.

Watching my godson play.

Magazines.

My friends.

Words With Friends. Seriously addictive.

Salt water.

Sheets air dried (not happening this time of year).