No one is going to be able to start for you. You have to take the first step all by your self. I recently found myself in a conversation where I had said “its not like you can tape them to your body and make them walk, its got to be something they have to decide they want to do for themselves”. We shared a laugh and a brief pause in the conversation for a shared thought of physically taping yourself to someone and walking for them. But I think you get the point.

It may be difficult to start, I agree with you and many others who have been where you are today. You may remember that I spoke about it taking me a month to write my first blog post which I hope that you don’t go back and read as it is only two short paragraphs that aren’t relevant. I mean we’ve all been there but you have to make the decision to start all on your own. The famous quote “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” Lao-Tzu, comes to mind and it rings clear as a bell.

I can’t help but think that people in general still can’t come to terms that they are going to suck at something at first. After you fail and hopefully you learned why, you can try it again and again until you succeed. Just remember that at one point in your life you wouldn’t have been able to read this post. Yep I’m sure this is a mind blowing revelation for you. Or maybe you’ve been doing it for so long that you forgot how hard it was for you to start.

I want you to keep your head up pull yourself out of the funk you may be stuck in and just do. Act, there is no better way to do anything than through action. If you don’t take action you stay still, become stagnant and dwell on how life is passing you by and you aren’t “able to get anything done”. This is only an excuse, a mental barrier, a “hurdle” I like to call it. We seemingly get lost in our own little world and think that everything is out of reach as we don’t have enough time to do it. Each time you say I can’t or I don’t know how or where to start. You place a mental barrier in your mind that is standing in the way of you taking action. All this does is create self doubt and the more you repeat it to yourself the less convinced you become you can actually do it.

Picture yourself jumping over one hurdle like in high school PE. It isn’t as hard as jumping over 20 of them in a row. It’s only one, anyone can do something once. Yet placing one hurdle mentally can make or break the way you take action towards that thing.

I guess the sad truth is if you just begin you’ll be amazed where it takes you, yet many including myself are stuck behind these mental hurdles. So all in all the easiest way to do anything is to just act on it, you can rest assured knowing you always have the freedom to stop if you find out that you don’t actually enjoy doing it. Looking at you exercise.

Secretly I love running, its been a part time pastime and form of mental clarity for me. It has shown me that patience and persistence can change the way you view things. It also gives me a chance to focus solely on the action of running and I guess you could say I just run all of my problems away, or run away from my problems but in the best way.

I wonder what you might be thinking at this point other than I’m starting to fall off topic? I am serious, I want to know, open some dialogue with me send me a DM on instagram, reach out via the contact page or start a conversation in the comments of this post. Share a story of how you didn’t think you could do what it is your so good at today. And let me stop your negative thoughts in their tracks and tell you that if you don’t think that you have anything you’re good at, you’re in denial and lack self confidence. Please do yourself a favor and be grateful for what you have and what you do as it makes a difference to someone even if it’s only you.

Finishing up like I usually do with this week’s practice. Still on the minuscules utilizing the three Spencerian principles the 52º main slant, and right and left curves. This weeks practice was the words some and sum. I’m always curious to see how off my m’s are, I find them traditionally too wide so I make them a little more compact. I don’t intend on being a calligraphy master anytime soon but I hope the masters give me a break if I choose to alter the letterforms ever so slightly. When I finally get around to making my alphabet practice sheets…yes I know I’ve put them off for too long. They will have the correct proportions described in the copy books of old so fear not I don’t want to impart my bad habits into your copy. Until next week, stay humble and grateful. Happy practicing!