Is It Ever Too Late To Start Something New?

I'm using this page as a reminder to myself that is in fact okay to start something new. I'm not abandoning my past, I'm embracing it while moving forward. Let's be real, the world today can be harsh and downright suck at times. In today’s world we are constantly reminded of where we’re at and where we want to be. Social media has a toxic way of fueling our insecurities. People have a way of only posting the highlights to their feed giving us a false impression of what life really is. We're comparing our own lives to everyone else's on a screen and wondering why we weren’t so lucky. Feelings of entrapment start to surface. Anxiety sets in. We end up paralyzed by our own fear. Is it really too late to start over though?

Everyday presents itself as a new opportunity.

What we do with that opportunity is entirely up to us. It’s never too late to start learning something new. You could be thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, even eighty! My grandpa was learning computers well into his eighties. My aunt decided to get braces at the age of sixty-three. Henry T Ford created the Model T car at the ripe age of 45. Ray Kroc was 52 when he bought McDonalds. So what makes it so hard?

It's hard to start over because we see our time already spent as an investment.

And by moving on that investment becomes meaningless. We've spent countless dollars and hours in schooling only to walk away makes us feel foolish. Not all is wasted though, a lot of the skills we’ve picked will be directly transferrable to our new endeavors. Starting over doesn’t just have to be in learning something new, this same logic can also be applied to our relationships. I can’t even begin to tell you the times I’ve heard from a friend they want to leave their partner but they don’t want to let go of all of those years invested. They wasted seven years with someone only to walk away. But did you grow from the experience? Did you become a better person? Did you learn anything about yourself? It’s never a total waste, it’s all perspective.

The key to all of this is actually doing it.

I read an article that said seventy million blog posts are created everyday. How come they don’t all gain traction and succeed? Well for 99% of those they started and ended with that first post. Perseverance and dedication lie at the heart. You need to have the want and will to start something new and see it through.

Stop waiting for the “Right Time”.

The right time will never present itself because life never really slows down. Working something new into your schedule can be difficult but it definitely is doable. You are the only person holding yourself back.

Start small. Do some initial research before diving right in. Maybe find an online course that’s free. Or some blogs about the subject to get a better understanding. Free courses are available all over the web. Sign up and dedicate twenty minutes a day on it.

I managed to learn my now wife’s language (Georgian) from the only two textbooks available online. What was my drive? Well I was hoping she would see this as me being serious and eventually would marry me. (Hey it worked!)

Set small goals to help you gain confidence.

We need wins along the way to keep us entertained and focused. If we feel we aren't accomplishing anything then we will ultimately walk away empty-handed. We'll never finish what we initially set out to. If you are taking a course try and finish one lesson a day. If you are starting into photography, try and take a few photos around the house each day.

Work into a habit, and by taking these minor steps and completing something you will start to feel more confident in your capabilities. You will also be creating a timeline of your progress. You will be able to go back and revisit those lessons and say yeah I totally understand all of that now. Or look at the photos you took and think "Wow my photos now look so much better than back then". These things can act as a scrapbook of your journey. It's a way of putting a timeline to our journey. Push your fears aside, stop making excuses, and get to work.

Risk is at the root of all success stories.

You have to be willing to take the risk in order to get ahead and change your life for the better. I've spent a lot of time with my nose in psychology books, talking to my students, or breaking down friend's insecurities. Anything is possible if you truly believe it is, but you have to start believing. And then you have to get up and start actually doing. It's going to be hard, it's going to downright suck at times, but trust in yourself and your abilities. You will be surprised at how much pain you actually can take. And all of that pain will help you get to where you want to be.