Just Start

I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve written a new blog post. 

But if I’m being honest, I’ve just felt a little stuck recently. 

I don’t know if you’d want to call it writers block, or just distracted.

I reached a particularly busy time at work in April, where I had a lot going on in the evenings and on the weekends. I’m a junior high band director, so it’s been a busy month with getting our new kids signed up for instruments, and preparing our older kids for their biggest concert of the year, which always feels pretty stressful for the director. 

But those things don’t take up any time in the early morning hours where I like to write. Since I started this blog, I’ll get up early, pour myself a cup of coffee, and write while the rest of the house was still asleep. I absolutely love this morning time. 

Working on this project has actually been a pretty healthy habit for me.

And no part of being particularly busy over the past month has prevented me from writing in that early morning time. Yet, for some reason, I’ve still been stuck. 

I’ve been hitting snooze. 

I’ve been promising myself that I’ll get started tomorrow each day. 

I’ve been allowing my stress to stop me from doing things that help me be less stressed. I’ve just been allowing myself to get swept up in it.

Maybe you’re in a similar spot.

Maybe there’s nothing actually stopping you from going out for a run. Or from sitting down to do some catch up on your finances.

The problem is, the longer you get away from doing those things that you know will help, the harder it is to get back to them. 

The longer it’s been since you updated your budget, the more impossible it feels to actually update it and pick it up again. 

What I eventually had to tell myself, and what you’ll need to tell yourself as well, is to just start. Creating that first bit of energy at the beginning may feel huge to you, but it’s vital to get things going again. 

It doesn’t matter how bad it is, it’s just important that you start.

That’s why YNAB, my favorite budgeting tool, is so insistent on people using the fresh start button. It’s the glass case you can break to simply start over without having to wade through all of the budgeting work that you got behind on. Just leave it, it’s not worth the work to catch up on. But just doing a fresh start so that you can get going again? It’s the perfect recipe for actually getting yourself started again.

So since you’re reading this, it means that I successful completed a reset. I got going again. 

And if you’ve been thinking you need a reset in your life too, I want you to take this as a sign to make it happen. 

Don’t wait, don’t do any more planning, just get up and do it. 

I’ll see you next week. 

Jared