A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step
Lau Tzu

I took my oldest son golfing for the first time last week (he’s 8 years old) and was reminded of a powerful lesson. Two lessons actually.

Learning new things is hard.
How you think about it makes all the difference

Learning new things is hard

Your brain doesn’t like change. And learning requires change.

It requires thinking, moving, and acting in different and often awkward and uncomfortable ways as your brain tries to piece things together.

Learning also requires opening yourself up to embarrassment. Both publicly and privately as we’re often hardest on ourselves when we feel we should be better at something.

But no beginner ever looks calm, cool, and collected the first time they do anything new. Whether learning to walk, speak, read, ride a bike, throw a ball, or swing a golf club.

Learning is messy.

But kids accept this for what it is; an obstacle to be overcome rather than accepted. And so they keep trying.

This is why when a baby first learns how to walk they’ll keep trying and falling until they figure it out.

The magic word is until.

They don’t stop until they figure it out.

We’re born resilient. It’s how our species survived.

Survival of the fittest dictates that the weak, scared, vulnerable, and fragile never last long.

So if something is important to you, fight for it.

Do what it takes.

Interested VS Committed

I heard a story once from John Assaraf when his mentor asked him if he was “interested or committed?”

And this simple question has stuck with me to today. And I use it everywhere. With anyone who tells me they want to achieve bigger, better things.

Because if you’re interested you’ll do what’s convenient.

But If you’re committed you’ll do what it takes.

Be committed.

And then swing like your life depends on it.

Because it does.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.
Chinese Proverb

Our backyard is full of trees. Big, small, and everything in between.

There are giant cedars, pines, fruit trees, and a whole bunch I don’t even know the name of.

They offer shade in the summer, they block the wind in the winter, and they provide privacy year round.

My kids climb them, build forts and treehouses, and learn about bugs, bees, ants, and spiders (…they’re scared of the spiders though)

And all because someone made the decision a long time ago to plant them.

Easy to do until you consider the alternative which would have been not to plant them.

Not to invest in a better future.

Not to take action.

That would have been a shame.

Too many choices, so little time

One of the greatest gifts of being alive today is that you can do pretty much anything.

The internet has made that possible. And has provided access to people, information, and ideas that previously would have taken a lifetime to acquire.

The problem then becomes overwhelm.

The paradox of choice that sets in from being able to see, read, watch, and engage with anyone at anytime.

Because we can do anything in life, but we can’t do everything.

So we need to choose. Choose something. Choose anything.

And accept that our first choice won’t be perfect.

First choices rarely are.

But the simple act of making a choice and taking some kind of action casts a vote in the direction of being an action taker.

And action takers rule the world (both internally and externally).

And can set you off an unpredictable but wildly exciting path that look to the outsider (aka non-action taker) like a series of lucky breaks.

When nothing could be further from the truth.

Audentes Fortuna Iuvat (translation: fortune favors the bold)
Latin Proverb

So find something worth doing. And start today.

Tomorrow is too late.

You don’t want to look back 20 years from now and wonder what you could have been if you’d only taken that first step.