Saturday, August 9, 2008

Taking the First Step

I have a tendency to “over think” responsibilities until they become extremely overwhelming. This need to be perfect in everything I do is, perhaps, a residual effect of living my younger years in chaos and today I discovered if sometimes I just do enough to get by, well guess what? It is good enough.

Recently I went through an exceedingly difficult time on my journey through life and found myself not having time to complete a paper for a summer course. Every day I would sit at my computer in an attempt to write…and every day it was fruitless; I could not find the words to start my paper.

A few days ago I started with a single sentence and continued to type until the paper was finished. The secret was just to start putting some words on the paper.
My husband has some words of advice, by Calvin Coolidge hung up where he can read them daily:

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

Today, as I reflect back, I have discovered how true those words are.

2 comments:

Andy Egizi, Program Coordinator said...

One of the primary reasons I started blogging was to exercise my brain. I force myself to write something every day. Sometimes, I have an idea by the time I get my computer turned on, but other times I just sit and stare at all of that white space with no idea of how to fill it. What I've learned from this, and from all of those writing courses I took as a student, is that you're always better off writing than staring at the white space. If you write garbage, just forgive yourself and realize that there will be other days.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree 100% with Calvin Coolidge and Andy that the first step is simply to put pen to paper or in our case with the help of good ole' trusty technology, type a string of words that make sense on the computer screen with the keys on our keyboard. Afterall, getting our thoughts and ideas out is half the battle. Once we do that, we become one step closer to completing our paper, journal, or book. Please thank your husband for sharing such crucial words of encouragement.