We sit and we plan and we think.
We worry and we adjust and consult various experts.
We learn and we pick up skills and equipment and we get ready.
We wait for inspiration and the right time and for the doubts to stop.
We sit on a fence for a very long time, waiting to really know.
But there is no ready. There is no perfect time. You won’t really know. You will doubt your abilities and the timing and the plan. You will doubt everything.
“Who am I to do this?” you’ll doubt and yet: Who are you NOT to do this?
You just have to jump.
And just like a taxi can’t go anywhere until you decide on a destination; when you commit, when you decide, when you truly begin, the engines fire up. Everything you need starts to happen; it all starts to line up.
The following words from W. H. Murray, a Scottish mountaineer, have been with me for a long time:
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“Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep respect for one of Goethe’s couplets:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.”
— W. H. Murray
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The fact is you just have to try.
Not try, as in Luke Skywalker’s half-hearted attempts which were so rightly smashed by his teacher Yoda in those immortal lines: “Try not! Do or do not. There is no try” …
… but fully and completely commit, heart, mind, body and soul to your vision. And in this commitment you will be shown the path to get there.
You will be guided to what works and what doesn’t work – IF you stay mindful and awake and listen for the need of the moment, for the grain of the wood, for the flow of the current.
Get behind it. Begin it.
If you like poetry, and I do, here’s a few lines further:
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If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.
— Charles Bukowski, author
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Don’t worry.
“Could risk” are the operative words here. Your fear will tell you you’ll end up penniless, friendless, and on the streets. I don’t think so. But the rightness and magic you experience, that “feeling like no other”?
Worth everything.
Get behind your splendid plan. Begin it.
Go well,
Arjuna