how to start a new chapter

Do you ever say to yourself, "I'm starting something new!  A new chapter starts today in the book of me! I'm going to be a new person, starting now! Everything is changing!" and then, three days later, you're in your jammies, zoned out on facebook, eating entire bags of Lundberg's brown rice cakes, wondering where  all that momentum went?  No?  Just me? 

It happens to me a lot.  I get this whoosh of power and energy, and I get really excited about a new project or exercise regimen or foodway, or I feel super compassionate and I just love everyone, and I want to do amazing things in the world.  Then the laundry piles up, and I wake up late, and I yell at the dog... and it all fizzles out.  Stephen Pressfield calls this resistance. I call it blind, back-pedaling terror.

To Start a New Chapter, do this:

• open the book. (uh, your life).
• read the chapter you're in now. or write it.  or both.  or maybe dance it or bake it.  Whatever you do.
• turn the page. 
• keep going.
• ignore the voices.  Or invite them to tea and offer them scones.  Your choice.

The voices sound like this : "It isn't safe.  No one will love you if you grow and change.  You're failing.  You'll fail again.  You have bills to pay and Responsibilities.  YOU"RE DOING IT WRONG!!!" 

I think I've mentioned those voices before.  And I've talked about starting over, and a fresh start.  It's a recurring theme here.  Life is a constant dance of renewal; we start over, and over, and over, and over.  Every day, every hour.  But this time, this time I really mean it.  I'm laughing at myself now.  Because I say that every time.  What's different now?

These guys start a new chapter every year. I took this two days ago, and now they are blooming gloriously!

What's different is that I am taking action.  Real, concrete action.  I am not sitting around, wishing I could make something happen.  I am feeling such fear, and moving forward anyway.  I have help this time around, too.  I have a group of wonderful women who have agreed to be guinea pigs for one thing, a business mentor who is smart and funny and has cute dogs (dogs help any venture!), the support of my awesome wife, and a new sense of determination.

The stakes are a little higher.  I'm eager and scared and joyful and a little nostalgic for when I could just get up and go to work, but this is so important.  This time, I hear the call, and I have to rise to meet it.  I've been holding back so long, out of fear and a need for security, but Life doesn't need that.  My gifts are needed in the world.  That's why I'm here.  How dare I hold anything back?

And it goes for you, too.  Your gifts are needed in the world.  That's why you're here.  How dare we hold anything back?