Small bites, always:)

I had been wanting to write regularly from quite some time. It did happen in fits and starts, but didn’t go on to be consistent. We often wait to find the optimum conditions to start anything – be it a new exercise routine, or a new project, or a new way of living. Big or small, we always have an excuse – I will start on Monday (it’s a good day), or I will start from the 1st of the month (if it’s January, then this almost never sticks).

The problem with us is THAT WE NEVER JUST START TODAY.

That’s what I did. I just started today, 1,580 days back. No optimum time, no fancy calculation, I brought out my laptop and started typing.

I started a 7-day sādhanā, and around the 5th day, switched to 21 days. And then just continued.

It’s easier to stick to a routine if you make smaller commitments at the outset, and then increase it along the way.

For example, 2 minutes of prānāyāma everyday for the first week, and then double it the next week. This leads to a sense of achievement – that I was able to complete what I set out to do, and also doubled it subsequently, and motivates you towards larger goals.

I didn’t know what this would turn out to be – what direction it would take, and how I would carry this forward (also, if I would carry this forward). When we start something that we really want to do, it’s ok if we don’t know the destination.

The journey has to be enjoyable, it does not necessarily have to lead anywhere.

Often our decision to do something hinges on the results, the goal, or what we want to achieve from it. This is necessary sometimes – when undertaking a new business venture for example. But matters of the heart and your passion, these can’t be quantified, nor laid out in clinical terms.

If it’s just something that you want to do – then do it regardless of what it achieves.

At the least, the process will make you happy. If you succeed, good, if you don’t, well at least you tried and maybe learnt something new along the way.