just like starting over…

I saw this quote the other day:

If you’re sick of starting over you have to stop quitting.

Then this one turned up on my Facebook wall:

If you’re sick of starting over you have to quit quitting.

Same, same but different?

Then, later that afternoon, the Zen Habits Best of 2012 post turned up in my mailbox. In there was this one:

The Habit of Starting.

Hmmmmm.

Once is a cute reminder, twice is a message, three times is ARE YOU LISTENING ALREADY??????????

So I read the post by Zen Habits. And it made sense. It also clicked into the part of me that likes to start new things. All. The. Time.

I was born at a New Moon, and regardless of the sign that your Sun is in, the New Moon is associated with brand new energy. Aries energy. The fresh energy of starting something. It’s the energy of Sunrise – the promise of something new.

Also, I was born at dawn. This means that my Rising sign is the same as my Sun sign.  This is also a sort of Aries energy. A look at me, it’s all about me, I want to be first sort of energy.

I’m very good at starting things. I’m not so good at finishing them. I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve started the c25k running program. And then stopped it (usually because of injury) before starting again. And then stopping again. The closest I ever got was 4kms.

I’m out of the blocks with enthusiasm. Always. Even when there’s something I don’t really want to do, I’ll volunteer first. Just to start.

I don’t like to finish. Endings don’t have nearly the same level of achievement (for me) as beginnings. Beginnings are fresh and new- like dew drops on flowers in the morning, like that first tinge of spring green on leaves, that pink of plum blossoms. Endings are grey, damp and manky.

With endings there is an emptiness- a vast nothing elseness…and I’m very much a what’s next girl. It’s one of the reasons that I like mini milestones, but not end goals. I prefer to wind the end goal into the beginning of something else. I like there to be always something to look forward to.

Perhaps I would have more luck at achieving the 5km running mark if I start a 10km program.

Anyways, Zen Habits post turns the thinking about habits on its head in a way that really resonates with me. Rather than thinking that a habit is something that you have to do every single day, how about treating a habit as being something that you consciously and mindfully start every single day?  Preferably at the start of every single day.

It’s the same theory as what I’ve always known. The whole just do it before you have time to think about it, and do it every day thing. But somehow it’s different.

Same same but different. It emphasises the starting energy, the sunrise energy, the childlike enthusiasm of the new. And that’s something I like. A lot.