I have spent a lot of time with horses over the years, both young and old. Seeing foals learn how to stand and walk within a couple of hours of birth is such a miracle. Their long legs make the task of balance very difficult, but they wobble and fall and then get back up again, each attempt a little better than the one before. Soon they are able to stand, and then take a few hesitant steps, and it isn’t long after that they learn how to run.
It’s all quite miraculous. It’s all about survival.
There are no options for them other than getting up and repeating the process until they figure it out. I remember trying to learn how to ride a bike, and the steps were the same. Try, fail, try again, fail again, repeat multiple times until finally I was successful. It was all about balance and trusting that if I put both feet on the pedals that the bike would stay upright.
Not nearly as miraculous as watching the foals learn how to stand, but an accomplishment nonetheless.
Most of what I have been able to do in life has come about through trial and error. Lots of error, it seems, when I think about it. And that was okay. When I was young I never worried about how long something was going to take to learn, or what other people would think while I was doing something poorly while learning, or if maybe I was too old to even be trying. I did whatever I decided would be fun to try to do.
Something changed over the years. Now the thought of beginning something new doesn’t seem so simple.
The moment I think I might like to try something, there is a voice that begins to tell me all of the reasons why I can’t do it. You’re too old, it’s too hard, it will take too much time, you should have done it 30 years ago, it doesn’t pay anything, other people will laugh at you, and you don’t need to do it. This voice is kind of cruel and doesn’t sound like a friend at all.
Of course the voice is mine. It is the small part of myself that tries to limit what I am able to do. It’s the part of me that I constantly do battle with, the natural desire to expand myself sometimes winning but often losing.
Play it safe. Stick with what you know. Be thankful for what you already have. Then wake up one day full of regrets. That isn’t the ending that I want.
It all starts with a decision, a choice to do something. This is where the power of focus plays such a big part. If my focus remains only on the desired outcome, then the journey there becomes much clearer. It also helps to quiet the little voice that would stop me before I even start.
If you want to do something, and it becomes a matter of survival that you do it, then when would you give up? Like the foal learning to stand, if there are no other options, what is the likelihood that you will accomplish what you set out to do?
I will never again be as young as I am right now. There will not come a day where beginning something will be any easier than it will be today. In this moment I will make a decision and then focus only on the outcome and the steps I need to take to get there.
See you at the finish line.