Today’s Mandala Message: Just Start
This week I’m working through Principle #35 from Jack Canfield’s “The Success Principles” entitled “99% is a Bitch; 100% is a Breeze”. I set my intention today to ponder a small step I can take to get started on one of my projects.
As it turns out, today is the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon and his famous quote about how his first step was a small one, and yet overall the whole process of how he and his fellow astronauts got there is a “giant leap” for all of humankind.
From step #7 of Dr. Sally Hilton’s post ‘8 Steps to Commit to Your Goals’: “Often the problem starts right at the start, as in we can’t even get started. We say we’ll start tomorrow, then tomorrow comes and we put it off further. Often if we can get past that very first hurdle, the rest is easy! So what is so hard about getting started? … A trick to getting started is to simply tell ourselves that we’re only going to do the thing we don’t want to do for a really short amount of time (if it’s time-based).”
I tend to put off continuing to paint the second in my series of Archangel mandala paintings. With each phase of it I’ve struggled with not being able to “just start”. Because it’s a large painting (4’x4’), it can seem daunting to me. I’ll eventually start & complete a big step in the process and then it will take me a couple of days (weeks) to get back to it. I would prefer to work on it every day. So I like the idea of giving myself a time limit … say 10-15 minutes. I know that once I start working on it, I will tend to work on it for a longer time period. Then again, it may work better for me if I just do a “row” at a time. As the rows get larger I can then do it by time limits. To give you an idea of what it looks like so far:
A good mindfulness practice would be to ponder doing the first step towards a goal you’ve been putting off.
So how about you? What is one small step you can take to start right now? Can you allot 5-10 minutes to start? How about by sections or steps?
“That’s one small step for man,
— Neil Armstrong
one giant leap for mankind.”
Blessings,
Maureen
The Mandala Lady
All Things Mandalas
An Invitation
I invite you to color along with me this year as part of what I’m calling “The Year of Self-Exploration and Expansion” with all of my “Mandalas of the ___” (day, week, month, year). If you’re interested in more of a self-exploration approach to coloring, check out my “Coloring Mandalas as Meditation”. You can download this mandala at MandalaoftheWeek.com.
Mandala of the Day 