You don’t have to be great to start

As I checked out my news feed this morning, I noticed that Brian Tracy shared a very powerful statement originally made by Zig Ziglar. The statement read, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

I’ve heard this statement several times before, but it never really stuck until this morning.

After thinking about it all day, I’m really starting to understand what Mr. Ziglar meant. And it makes a lot of sense. Too much sense. So much sense that I wish it was something I said. Because that would make me a brilliant motivational speaker.

But I’m not a brilliant motivational speaker (Yet!), so I’ll just share Zig Ziglar’s thoughts with you and expand upon them a bit in my own words.

“You don’t have to be great to start . . .”

Everyone wants to be great at something. No one dreams of being average.

It’s easy to see yourself accomplishing your goal, celebrating your successes with your friends and family. But it’s incredibly difficult to look at the situation through the lens of reality and admit that you won’t accomplish your goal for several months, years or decades.

As a result, most people never take the first step because they’re too worried about looking good along the way.

They want to save money, but they don’t want their friends to see them driving a ten-year-old car. They want to get in shape, but they don’t want strangers to see them struggling to run a mile.

“. . . but you have to start to be great.”

If you never start, you’ll never finish. It’s as simple as that. Unless you’re willing to take a step outside of your comfort zone and take a step toward your goal, you’ll never go anywhere. Most people never become great because they never start.

Take my blog for example. Some of my posts are pretty lame. But unless I write every day, I’ll never get any better.

One day, I’d like people to think of me and say, “John Garvens is a great writer.” But that day isn’t here yet. So, I’ll just keep writing.

Once you realize that it’s okay to be bad at something the first time you try it, you’ll give yourself the freedom to experiment more and try new things. But the most important thing to remember is that you have to start.

Just start and enjoy the ride. You never know where it will go.

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