One of the many facets of success is the idea of beginning. We often will contemplate an idea or venture, becoming quite excited about it, only to let it pass by for a myrid of reasons. Chief among those is the fear of failure. We tend to want to avoid beginning because there is a risk that all of our efforts may pass into what is percieved as fruitless failure. Why invest that time and money if it might not work out? However, the spectrum of Human Experience tells us that those who do begin, and work to finish (even when the finish is not what was expected) are the ones we know about and many attempt to emulate. I don't really want to talk about the finish quite yet, though. To begin, that is a sweet nectur in our soul. Even with ventures that fail, there is something to be gained from the beginning. We are often reminded by those who are on their death bed, or those who have had near death experiences, that we should live our life by priorities, not so much by obligation. Inherent is the notion of living in our purpose. Orrin Woodward describes purpose as the area where passion, potential, and profit intersect. What is your niche? What is the area of life where you come alive and thrive, as though nothing could stop you? As you find this answer as why you are not doing it (if you aren't), or what you could do to better your activity to this point. Going back to the idea of Plan, Do, Check, and Adjust, what quadrant are you currently in? Have you sought out your purpose, your niche, the thing you have to offer this world? If so, what are you doing with it? Have you dedicated any time, effort, money, or other resources to doing this thing? How is it going for you? Is it coming to fruition the way you want or are there things you could do to make it better? Determine what can be done to change the outcome towards your goal, make the changes, which takes you right back to the beginning. Always in the state of growth we are beginning at something. Every activity is not simply one activity, just as a moment in time is not simply one moment. Time interweaves with itself in a map of transition, so too is our actions. To go down the rabbit hole for a brief moment, time is simply a measurement of change, nothing more. A balance is necessary to understand how to treat time. We need to not be bound by the seconds, while at the same time live our life by the clock. This speaks of everything in moderation. If we live only by the clock and map out every section of every day it becomes bland and meaningless. However to achieve the greatness within some organization has to be embraced, otherwise nothing would get done. A great picture of this balance is the story of The Little Prince. "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains." {Jean Jacques Rousseau} Our society has become one where the dream is a nice hobby if one has the itching for a hobby. Otherwise it's all work. Interestingly enough most forms of art that are out there scream at us to not become such addicts to mediocrity and the doldrums. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." "Jim, you have the makings of greatness in ya." "You can change your fate." "Fear is not real." These are just a smattering of quotes from movies speaking to the antithesis of complacent living. We are living in a pool where a few have caused the current to move in one direction, and we are given a choice: either to pick up our feet and go with the current; or we can begin, we can put our feet down and move in another direction. Pool bottoms are rough though, they will cut, scrape, and mangle the feet for a moment of time. "Pain heals, chicks dig scars, and glory lasts forever." You can get through the trial of pain.
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