Getting Started

Often, I start a blog draft with a title. Just a title with no preconception of content. Magically, the content appears. The logic of the thoughts pushes on to the end of the draft and suddenly there is a finished product. All I have to do is edit, polish for the day it is published. On that day it is edited again and possibly changed, often not. 

Getting started can apply to almost any situation. Last Sunday, I gave a message in place of the sermon. The pastor was on vacation and two of us covered those Sundays. Lay people providing the morning’s message. Our church does this a few times during the year.  

Once done, I am free to go back to my routine. In a sense I am getting a fresh start. The church message took that much out of me.  Always does. The start is somehow a fresh view to what I have normally done. A ride in the country somehow fresher and more beautiful. Same for reading a book or watching TV. For some reason the experience is richer. 

Getting a fresh start on anything often happens when our minds are startled into a new perspective. It is a happening created by some other experience.  

What should I do with the rest of my life? That’s always a good question for fresh starts. At 81 many people would argue I don’t have much life left. That may be true, but it is time that must be used in some manner. How will I do that? As I said, always a good question. 

I have been busy writing. I have coached and mentored hundreds of SCORE clients. I have been involved in numerous nonprofits, and other voluntary duties. Each has meaning and value. Just continuing these actions is a decision to continue serving something outside of myself. Doing so with fresh eyes is the ‘new start’ spoken of. 

After a creative activity, one I feel good about, my thinking is clearer and more creative. It is a fresh start for that type of activity. So, the newer SCORE client gets special attention that day. A blog is written more clearly, perhaps more creatively, too.   

Doing something new from scratch is not what we are addressing here. That is possible, like a new use of acquired information and understanding, using that in an entirely new way to create a new end. Doing something old in a fresh way is a new start, too.  

How many other ways can we challenge ourselves to doing more or better? Well, thinking about it helps. The possibilities are endless, really. And very rewarding when we follow through. Try it! 

August 26, 2024 

 

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