Paralysis of Starting Over

Sometimes, the hardest step isn't moving forward, so what it is? It's simply beginning again.

Starting a weight loss journey for the second (or third) time? It feels overwhelming. 

Picking up a book after months of not reading? The first page feels impossibly heavy. 

Opening yourself to a relationship again after heartbreak? The vulnerability alone can be paralyzing.

Even returning to work after a break, or writing when the mood isn't there, like right now, requires pushing through invisible resistance.

Maybe the answer really is just to start. But that's precisely what makes it so difficult. The weight of past attempts, the memory of previous failures, the knowledge of how much effort lies ahead, it all added up into something that feels impossible to overcome.

Tet here's what I'm learning: the mood doesn't have to define what we're capable of. Action often precedes motivation, not the other way around. 

The perfect moment rarely arrives on its own. Sometimes we just have to begin, imperfectly and uncomfortably, trusting that momentum will follow.

So here I am, writing this even when I don't particularly feel like it. And maybe that's the point.