YOU ARE NOT BEHIND; YOU ARE JUST BEGINNING.

What exactly is your definition of being 'behind'?

 

Who are you behind? Who are you looking at that makes you conclude you are far behind in starting something?

Because somewhere along the line, without anyone announcing it, you decided you had missed the way, that the people who were of your age bracket have already lapped you, that you are too late to start anything and you released yourself into the hands of fate.

And now you have been sitting on the same idea for three years. You have not touched it. Every time it crosses your mind, the first thing you feel is not excitement again but guilt of not starting. 

Most people call this feeling being behind. But that feeling has been running your life. And it is lying to you. You are not behind.

Where the 'behind' feeling actually comes from

Comparison was the first problem before it became a statement, it was a quiet observation. Studying someone greater, that slowly turned into a verdict you embedded in your mind. You looked at a man who spent fifteen years building what he has, and instead of studying his process to learn from him, you measured his beginning against your result. That is not inspiration, it's a trap into doing nothing but feeling oppressed and little. 

A popular quote said,

"Your first role model has to be someone who has the same beginning as yours."

Because the moment you start working with someone else's timeline and achievement, you stop living yours. You do not just compare progress, you start believing you owe the world an explanation for where you are. You begin to live for the world to see and be impressed.

And the comparisons are never distant, most are always personal. Your course mate that launched his business last year. A younger person blowing up on social media with no degree and no visible plan. That cousin who is already married and settled, and every family gathering quietly becomes a reminder. These are the measuring sticks you are using. None of them was made for you, no matter how close they are to you, even if you are of the same age bracket. 

Some timelines were never yours to work with, but you are so deep inside other people's stories that you have started treating their chapter three as your own deadline. That is not self-awareness. That is how people talk themselves out of the best thing they were ever going to do. You are not behind their story. Being 'behind' only exists in relation to someone else's race. You were never meant to be in that race.

THE REAL COST OF WAITING

This is what you do, every day you wait, you assure yourself with another new year resolution that you will do better but another thing happens, you go soft on your plans. You believe your plans are too slow to come true or probably unrealistic enough to fetch you that fame in two weeks.  

You are so focused on the future — tomorrow, that you missed each of today's step, you give unnecessary lapses, you keep waiting for the right time , you see someone bringing into reality exactly what you planned in your head — these are the real cost of waiting. Then in a rush to meet up with deadlines that wasn't yours, you make the wrong decision, you begin to run at a pace no one understands, not even you personally. Sometimes you are exactly not behind,  you are just where you should be at the moment.  No man becomes their dream self in a sudden moment of time.

WHAT BEGINNING ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE 

Starting is a decision that stands firmly on actions that was held tightly together with discipline.  It's not a dramatic overhaul. Starting — you don't have to quit your job, sell your house, have a fat amount sitting in your bank account, post an announcement or have everything figured out yet, it doesn't have to be. Beginning has to be your concrete, ugly, painful, small action taken before confidence arrives. 

Confidence does not come before the action. It is produced by the action. Dismantle the idea that you need to feel ready, no one ever does. Readiness is a myth you are using to delay yourself.
There is something this write up has been saying from the beginning, never compare your little beginning with someone else 2 years achievement,  they are two different thing. You can admire and learn but that shouldn't stop you from starting something.  

You don't have to be scared of failing or taking risk. What will be the fun of a story line if there isn't any rollercoaster. Start with a decision, continue with determination, let discipline rule your heart and you will see how fast, though not easy you'd get to the top.

Even if your friend is achieving it all, your cousins have gotten married, your time seems short,  everything seems to be happening fast, and everyone seems to be doing something — you are still not behind, you are just beginning. 

Start honorably, there was never a schedule or timeline. Though we tend to age, what matters is your first intentional step. The only timeline that matters is the one that starts the moment you decide, when you close your eyes against other competitors and focus on what you want each day. 

Be so much intentional about your today. Start today, continue tomorrow, show up the day after and never miss a day. You will see that no one is ever behind, it's the fact that you haven't started that made it seems so. Bring out your plans, no one will help you except you begin by helping yourself. Nothing here was meant to inspire but to reveal the unhealthy habit that has cost you your position at the top. 

Are you ready to stop that thought of comparing and begin where you are? Follow for more healthy truth.
What's one lie you've been telling yourself that has kept you from starting?