First Gear is Always the Hardest

Why does it take so much time to get the things you want in life? Do you feel like the emergency break is on and you’re stuck at the light? Do you ever feel like you just want to run away, hide and start life over again? Does the fear of failure keep you on the sideline or is doing nothing a better solution? If you don’t try you can’t fail or be embarrassed. If you say nothing, you won’t sound stupid! What can you do to ensure life will unfold as you desire?

I had an eye opening conversation with an entrepreneur about the struggles and challenges faced from day to day. I interviewed the owner of boutique, kinda like an Adam and Eve store. I inquired as to what got him involved with this line of business. He stated that he knew early in life he couldn’t work for someone else. So he decided to start selling bow ties.

He said there were days when he didn’t want to get out of bed. There were days when he didn’t want to go to work. There were days when he was fearful that his business would fail. There were days when he was down to his last dime and unsure where his next meal would come from. Even though he was afraid and fearful, he felt the fear and did it anyway.

During our conversation, he said something that really stuck with me. He said, “Sometimes first gear is the hardest to get out of.”

So many of us have no idea what we want to do in life. You spend most of your time complaining about the things in life that didn’t turn out as desired. You give excuses about failed relationships, shattered dreams, and that ‘once in a life time opportunity’ that you let slip away. You blame your parents, the weather, the economy, the President, your height and lack of athletic ability, as to why you don’t have the wants and desires of your life.

Many people I speak to are able to tell me everything they don’t want, but find it difficult, even challenging to tell me the things they do want. That’s because they spend so much time thinking, reliving, and complaining about the results they don’t want.

Some people, take action without weighing any options and that can be disastrous. You didn’t know that the city was scheduled to do construction on the street in front of your newly purchased investment property. You couldn’t foresee the major cuts in teaching and government jobs, due to decades of frivolous spending, or you were a victim of education system, like many of our parents, grandparents and relatives and conditioned to believe that after giving 20, 30, or 40 years to a company, your 401K or pension would be enough to sustain you.

Tell that to the people that lost everything during the Enron scandal, Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme, Tyco and the stock market crash in 2008. Tell that to all the displaced workers who’s jobs have been shipped overseas. Instead, if you spent your time or start spending your time making yourself an asset or valuable to others, a job and having abundance in all aspects would be the least of your concerns.

Some people analyze a situation until they are paralyzed and end up doing absolutely nothing. You get stuck on the details, wanting everything to be perfect before you make a move. Perfection occurs through movement, not stagnation. Practice makes perfect. Look at nature. It’s constantly bringing forward new life, new creations. Defining and redefining what you do creates new outcomes, responses, and results. Michael Jordan became a great basketball player over years of practice and performance, not playing it safe and sitting the bench.

So what is it going to take for you to get in gear and live the life of your dreams? There shall come a time when your parents will no longer discipline you and you have to “whip your own ass,” so to speak. You have to decide what you want and see it through. Focus activates the law of attraction. But you have to be disciplined enough to decide what you want, believe you can have it and allow that which you desire to manifest in your life.

You are stuck in first gear, because your attention span, your focus lasts just long enough to get the ball in motion. Then you’re on the next shiny object because what you’ve asked for hasn’t appeared, yet. For most, that’s not a complete thought. That’s why you get some of what you want and some of what you don’t want. It’s necessary to focus, meditate, build enough momentum, do the necessary work, envision the end result and move your feet, so you can take flight. Then you can pull back and coast, but you have to get off the ground first.