Weekly Wisdom – Be Bold. Begin
How do we begin?
Particularly when we face our doubts and dreams? Beginning something new can feel heavy, fearful, and doubtful. It can seem to demand unreasonable effort and disruption, a violation of our priorities and obligations, and a risk of failure if not disaster.
We imagine we have to leap over mountains. We miss the wisdom of Lao Tzu that the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. And the appreciation of how boldness breaks old rigidities to open a new way.
Quote:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!
– Goethe
Design Perspective:
How do we begin? This is an important question, because we can be overcome with intimidation by the demand of how our beginning must end. There are four approaches I’ve encountered that are particularly valuable.
First is the quote of boldness. Boldness not to leap the mountain, but to take the first step. Our habits and biology have an effect called homeostasis, which is the tendency to go back to a prior comfortable state. To stay with the familiar. To let our commitment to the new effort get displaced by our current habitual patterns. I find boldness to be the determination to take the first step, to go beyond doubt and hesitation, to go beyond fear to begin the journey instead of just think about it. To begin birthing the dream and let it call you one step at a time.
Launching Journey Into Wisdom has been such a journey for me. Is it a yes? No? How? Will it work? But I looked to find my “center,” my source of choice rather than reaction. And what informs the center. What matters. What we care about. Journey Into Wisdom is a conversation I care about, for example. So, we take the step. We can choose to act from commitment rather than comfort. Let being uncomfortable be okay as long as we are prudent in our choices.
Second was the work of psychologist Robert Maurer, who wrote the book One Small Step Can Change Your Life. I provided it as a text to participants in my opening three-day conferences in the Generative Leadership program that I offered for two decades. To break through the resistance to doing something new, Maurer’s guidance was to start with an act so small that you cannot fail. If the dirty dishes pile up over time, then start with one dish. Do more tomorrow. Get a new habit going, make it familiar one step at a time.
Third, gotta have rhythms. For anything to live and grow it has to have rhythm. Lungs breath, hearts beat, we sleep and wake, meals have a rhythm. Key conversations need to have rhythms. Don’t just meet with the team once. Don’t say “I love you” just once. Rest and renewal can’t happen just once. Give them their rhythms. Organize your schedule into rhythms.
Fourth is accepting the reality of resistance. Resistance is the ever-present enemy, written about by Steven Pressfield in his book the War of Art and others. Resistance arises as the counterforce we always face with the call to our creative selves.
Practice is where our habits come from. Coaches in sports often mention that they don’t just coach to win games. They coach to produce championship habits. We are what we have practiced. We will become what we are practicing. We need to design and adopt practices to change our habits. What will you practice for your good life, for growing your contribution, and for fulfilling your destiny?