How often have you been told that starting is the hardest part?
But when I think about it from a personal perspective, starting is easy compared to finishing or completing something difficult and challenging. How often have we all started something only to leave it behind once the hard work really begins? Think those piano lessons you were so excited about until you realized playing your favorite song was only going to come after first learning scales and practicing consistently for months? My own journals are filled with sketches for a fashion line and half written poems and statements of determination to reach fluency in French. My most frequent spoken French words are still: Je ne peux pas te comprendre.
Beginning a race is scary, yes, but pushing through the pain and giving it all you have until you cross the finish line? That’s hard and painful.
Opening a word document and making a simple outline is perhaps stressful, but working with focus and dedication for months, writing multiple draft chapters, finalizing those chapters, and then painstakingly editing and proofreading each footnote to finally submit a complete and final thesis? That takes strength, discipline, and sacrifice.
Walking down the aisle may be nerve-wracking. But walking through the ups and downs of life together with faithfulness and holding your spouse’s hand at the end of their journey here on earth? That’s the real victory!
This isn’t to say that the start isn’t significant or that getting off the couch to go for that first run in a long time or overcoming that real and stifling fear of public speaking by signing up for a talk aren’t admirable and worthwhile.
But, this is to encourage those who already started, who are perhaps going though the difficulty of persevering even when their work or their efforts seem insignificant. Your work, your goal, your path, your little tasks are significant, and there is something noble about completing something you have set out to do! Keep going, focus on the finish line, remember why you started, and stand victorious at the end!
Don’t just take my word for it: Check out this article from a psychological perspective:
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