Starting is so hard.

The line between fluttering butterflies and full-on nausea is often quite difficult to distinguish.

The anticipation of what is to come once you start can bring a huge smile to the face – a sparkle in the eyes –or it can paralyze even the strongest, most confident amongst us.

Why is it so difficult to take that first step?  To launch?  To just do it?

Is it an ability we perceive lacking in ourselves?  Is it faith we need more of?  Or, is it fear?  Oh, that darn fear!

The greatest safety tool our bodies provide is our physiological response to fear.  It tells us when to pump more blood through the body, when to send fighting cells out to protect us, when to run, when to hide, when we are in danger, and when we are OK.

The heart starts beating, the beads of sweat glisten on the skin, a rosy huge rushes over the cheeks and body.  The body is alive – sensing, feeling, sparkling!

But, as humans, we have also been blessed with rational thought.  As the body awakes to change with excitement, rational thought steps in with “what if,” “oh, no,” “there could be greater danger on the other side,” “there is a chance you can’t do this.”

Handy tools at times to protect us, but more often pesky little bugs that swarm around our heads and distract us from doing what we are meant to do.

So, maybe we can compromise.  Watch those pesky little bugs making patterns in the sky above our heads, give them space to flutter about more like butterflies than gnats, and call them courage.  In the end, inviting them to come with us, hover a little more at a distance, move us forward instead of holding us back.

Then, maybe we can sparkle a little more and starting won’t be so hard.

If you could get up the courage to begin, you have the courage to succeed.  –David Viscott