The need to get started

OASIS

Arthur Ashe, the legendary tennis player once said, “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” His words become significant when we recognise how daunting and difficult it is to get started.

Consider this. A jet uses a whopping one-tenth of its entire fuel capacity only for its take-off. Writers spend maximum time on their first few paragraphs before they can overcome the writer’s block. Athletes have to warm up before they can reach their peak performance.

In fact, jumping out of bed in the morning after six to seven hours of sleep is often the toughest task of the day. And so it is in any area of our lives. To begin anything takes effort. Yet nothing can ever be attempted or accomplished until we start.

"You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great," said Zig Ziglar, the famed American author and motivational speaker. This philosophy takes greater importance as we begin this New Year 2022, amidst the ongoing pandemic of Covid-19 showing no signs of waning or ending. Most of us are beginning the year with the heaviness of grief and despondency.

For some it’s the loss of their loved ones to the pandemic; for others, it is the loss of their jobs and incomes; for several others, it is coping with the debilitating effects of long Covid; for still many, it is a dip in morale and estranged relationships; and for almost every one of us, it is the frustration of having to live in these changed circumstances for days on end.

Under these conditions, it is tempting to look at the New Year with little or no enthusiasm. It is natural to feel uninterested and unexcited about making new beginnings. It is justifiable to be stuck where we are with little motivation to begin again. Even so, it is imperative that we get started on improving and enhancing our lives.

Let us not put off what we need to commence because of the desperate situation we currently find ourselves in. As the renowned Saint, St. Francis of Assisi said, “Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”