Virtue Quest

I don’t know about you, but for me the biggest hurdle to any task is taking the first step. It means work. It means sacrificing some freedom or pleasure. It means change. So here I am, at the beginning of developing virtue in my life, and I’m shaking in my socks.

Am I really going to change my life?

Will it really be for the better?

At this point, I usually make the wrong move. I stop and try to answer those two questions. I worry about whether I’ll be able to stick to my committment, or whether I’ll give up when the going gets tough – like I have so often in the past.

Or I sit around trying to figure what the odds are of the change really being worthwhile. I stare into the future with more intensity than any poker player staring at an opponent’s hand – but with much less insight.

The thing to do is simply to do something.

Anything at all. I just need to get off my buttocks and act. So for me the first step on this road to virtue is hitting the keys and putting out this blog.

Maybe for you it’ll be something different. Maybe it’ll be picking up that pair of pants you threw in the corner last night. Or perhaps it’ll be to pick up the phone and call your mom. Or it might be to drive over to the gym tonight after dinner.

In any case, do something. Something is always better than nothing. Something is a real start.

Otherwise, the questions will simply answer themselves.