That thing we feared

Those things that we fear, the ones that we fear the most, when we start them and do them it’s amazing afterwards how we realise just how stupid it was to have feared them.

The things that we fear the most are the ones we put off the most. However, they’re the ones we really want to do the most but I’m just too fearful to start. It is the starting that’s the challenge not the doing, the doing is the easy bit and afterwards we realise why on earth did I have a fear of this thing.

So how do we get to start? We get to start by doing the small things, the small steps not the big things, the small steps and if it’s a big thing, we’ve got to do break it down to small things small tiny steps.

Small tiny steps that we won’t fear, that the brain or the mind won’t pick up on and sabotage.

That’s the trick, daily habits, small steps, tiny little things and then the compound effect comes.

Initially, we don’t see much of a change but gradually over time the momentum grows and the change becomes enormous and then we’ve gone from doing a series of tiny small insignificant steps to a giant leap that we could’ve never done before because the giant leap was too fearful.

Small steps is the answer, just 123 go, a small step never a giant leap, we never fear a small step.

Still practising at 90

There was a quote I read today where the legendary cellist Pablo Casals was asked why he continued to practice at age 90. He replied, “because I think I’m making progress”.

Our lives are not a series of one-off things that we do for a little bit and then stop. It is a journey and an adventure, where we continue in the moment to take steps and there does not have to be a final destination. We are obsessed with a start and an end. An art is, whatever your thing is, is for life.

We can always learn and get even better, of course, it is not about perfection, it is about continuing the exploration of our ‘art’, whatever that is. It could be making cakes, writing a book, painting, building a house, teaching, training or playing the cello. It is all an art and each one of us has a unique gift…a gift that we can give away to the world if we choose to.

We are all artists and the joy is in the continual practice and exploration of our unique gift…sharing our light for others takes practice, even at 90.