Begin Again – How New Starts Supercharge Your Performance, Relationships, and Results

 

What if we leveraged the wisdom of “begin again” to the things we do every day? The projects we work so feverishly on? The relationships we nurture? The visions we create? The ideas we cling to long after we’ve realized they’ve outlived their relevance?

Nature shows us there is much to be gained by releasing what has come before to make way for what has yet to emerge. Each season gives way to the next. The brightness of each day is punctuated by darkness of the night, which in turn is dispelled by the light of the morning sun. We have periods of wakefulness followed by periods of sleep.

Each day is an invitation to begin again.

“Begin again” means knowing when it’s time to stop and put something down. Or to create a pattern interrupt – perhaps a point to assess our progress, to push pause, and go do something else for a while.

And then we return with new eyes that see from a wider perspective, and a refreshed mind that has been opened to a wider aperture. We find that we can see things differently as a result of seeing different things.

“Begin again” is about giving yourself credit for showing up and taking a stab at something. It’s refusing to satisfy the perfectionist’s mandate to have everything figured out and perfectly planned and executed and instead to just start moving in a direction (any direction), and see what happens.

Momentum is created and you begin to move. And if you realize you aren’t moving in the right direction, you can use that energy to simply turn and go a different way. “Begin again” is about picking up where you’ve left off with revitalized energy and a renewed focus – one that can take in things you previously screened out or just didn’t originally consider.

“Begin again” means giving yourself another chance, investing in what you could create. It means doing things for the experience itself and learning something in the process. It means approaching something knowing that the outcome you originally envisioned may not be the destination at all – it may just be the thing that got you in the car and willing to start something – anything.

“Begin again” is taking the lump of clay and seeing what it wants to become – giving it form and not getting too attached to what it’s supposed to look like. Realizing that at any point, you can mold it into something new.

“Begin again” is freedom from the tyranny we create when we lock ourselves into a process or a goal or a pursuit that just doesn’t seem to be working or moving forward.

Sometimes the obstacles we face – the hurdles that continue appearing, the walls we keep slamming into, the unforeseen events that interrupt our progress are there for a purpose. They are invitations to stop, do something else, allow insight and wisdom to land, give us new direction, new ideas, new energy – and to simply begin again.