“Almost there”; sometimes these are the words of comfort I need to hear and sometimes they make want to attack the utterer. Being a runner and hiker means I get to hear them a lot more often than I want to. I love the intent behind them, they mean well. When I’m near the finish line, I welcome all variations of “Almost there” because its true, I can see the finish line and any form of discomfort I’m experiencing is bound to be over soon. If I’m no where the finish line, spare me the false hopes; say Good morning, You are doing great!, say nothing, anything but a lie.
Meaningful accomplishments take time, otherwise they wouldn’t be as meaningful or memorable. Of this time, the end is the best, midway is the boost and the beginning is the worst. Beginnings are hard; its why I need 4 alarms to wake up, why the first minutes into a workout are the hardest, why we quit New Years resolutions by February, why we get anxious on the first day of school, first day at a job, first date, you get the point. The beginning is uncomfortable, sometimes painful, so many unknowns with no end in sight. Naturally, we are wired to flee from adversity, it takes a lot of energy to power through it and the last thing our primal brains want to do is waste energy. We are wired to quit, that is why difficult challenges are meaningful.
People who don’t quit are not superhuman, they’ve just learnt to use science to their advantage, a simple concept called momentum. They know that once you’ve built enough of it, its actually gets harder to quit. They know that once you’ve overcome the difficulty of the beginning, it starts to be fun. They are aware that discomfort is not evenly distributed but is concentrated on the outset. They might not be chemists, but they are aware that activation energy is just a bump on the road to fun. With this knowledge, they’ve learnt not to target the finish line, but the momentum-point. With this realization, its no longer threatening, they are no longer afraid to start, the sky is the limit.
Moral of the story? Even though we are wired to be quitters, we are not limited. The lists of things you are capable of is infinite, not enough time in a lifetime. Whatever you think is beyond your limits, you just haven’t built up momentum for it. Give it enough time and practise and you’ll be way on your way. So learn, start, Just do it!.