Why Today Is the Perfect Day to Start Something New
How many projects have you stalled on after you missed a "sacred" start date?
March 5, 2024: This post was originally published in April 2018. A lot has happened since then, but one thing that hasn’t changed is our collective tendency to wait for the “right” time to start something new. What I wrote in 2018 holds true today: Today is the perfect day to start something new. Please enjoy the updates and additional links now included in this post.
When we think about the day to start something new, we tend to let the calendar guide our decision about when to get going.
“Next week” or “next month” is always when the diet, exercise, budgeting, or creative exploration makes sense to start.
And it’s not just the next week or month — it’s a particular day like the 1st or a Monday. Those days, we have determined, are The Days to Start Something New, capitalized because they’re as hallowed as other capitalized holidays.
Why “The Day to Start Something New” Doesn’t Work
What happens when we decide to wait until The Day to Start Something New, is that when those actual days roll around… life, the unfinished stuff of yesterday, and the urgency spiral link up — like the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers — and smash our plans and hopes to bits.
Unlike the Power Rangers, they do not wait until the end of the episode to work us over — we know before The Day to Start Something New that it’s not going to happen.
In response, we add another few bullet points of justification to the negative stories we tell ourselves.
We decide that we need to wait until the next “Day to Start Something New” to try again or give up because, obviously, it wasn’t meant to be.
So Don’t Keep Waiting Indefinitely
Wait, rinse, and repeat. It sounds absurd when written out, but be honest with yourself: How much of your life have you spent waiting for the next Day to Start Something New?
How many projects have you stalled on because you missed your sacred start date?
Time is arbitrary in so many different ways. The 1st of the month is a human artifice, as is Monday and New Year’s Day. As is whatever date Day to Start Something New falls on for you.
That also means that today can be your Day to Start Something New.
That 30-day habit streak can start today just as well as the 1st. Your week to get something done can start on a Thursday as well as on a Monday.
Tomorrow is the next best starting day, as long as 'tomorrow' isn’t your code word for “never.”
We Thrive Through Taking Action
We thrive by doing our best work. Sages from Aristotle to the Dalai Lama have asserted that the goal of human activity is to thrive. Language, cultural context, and nuance varies, but the rough idea is the same.
Switching the emphasis from “thrive” to “human action” reveals one of the surprising double meanings that wisdom maxims usually carry: We thrive via action, or, more simply stated, we thrive by doing.
The obvious challenge is that certain kinds of actions lead to our thriving. Luckily, you already know the doing you need to do to move you toward thriving. Yes, it’s tied to the idea that’s nagging you.
I call the work that leads to our thriving best work, but because work is a complex concept that comes with a variety of meanings, contexts, and connotations, I’ll describe what I’m calling best work:
Your best work can be sacred
Only you can do your best work
Your best work serves you and others
Your best work requires really showing up
Your best work is easily displaced by other stuff
Your best work is more than just your “job”
Life is short enough as it is. Don’t spend what few days you have waiting for the arbitrary Day to Start Something New when that day can be today.
So tell me, what project or habit will you commit (or recommit) to starting today?
And if you need help to do more of the work that matters by converting ideas into finished projects, Start Finishing can help.