Beginning is Half Done

Many years ago, my wife and I attended a speaking engagement in Hershey, PA, with some remarkable speakers, like Dennis Waitley and Robert Schuller.  The only thing I directly remember from that day was a statement by Robert Schuller: “Beginning is half done”.  That statement has made a remarkable impression on my life ever since.

And it’s not even a deep thought. It’s a simple, obvious and kind of “common sense” thought. It’s just not commonly applied by most people.  What’s the alternative? Procrastination! I’ll wait. I’ll do it tomorrow. I’ll start in the new year. Yeah, that’s it, once we start 2019, I’m making some major changes.

Really? Why not now? Do we need the crutch? Doesn’t seem to work anyway.  The last search I did on the success of New Year’s Resolutions is 8%.  And 80% fail by February! It’s not New Year’s. It’s us.

We just need to get started. Period.

I tend to exercise in the mornings now.  I build time into my schedule, but I do not necessarily commit to the morning.  Here is how I fool myself by “beginning” the evening before. I get my workout clothes out and put them on my chair for the morning. By doing this I have not committed, just made it easier. Then the next morning, even if I feel like I’m not going to work out, I still put the clothes on. Because that’s an easy commitment.  And by the time I’ve had my coffee and read a little while, I’m a little more awake, and, by gosh, I already have my workout clothes with time to spare!  Works most of the time, and that’s good enough for me. Beginning is half done. In this case, “beginning” is getting the clothes out and putting them on the next morning. Sometimes I even laugh when putting them on, thinking, I am not working out this morning! No way! But a little later, I am more awake and already prepared.

Beginning is half done. It works. 

Write an article like this one – just start and you’re half done.

A major project to do. Just start and you’ll keep going, taking it down much quicker than expected. 

It’s simple: getting to the point of starting is half the battle.

Which is why beginning is half done.