You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great

You don’t have to be great to start but you have to start to be great: This quote talks about analysis paralysis – we sometimes get so caught up in having the perfect scenario that we don’t start at all. Whenever we feel stuck or lost in thought, this quote is a reminder that every great thing was once just a plan. It got better with time. When we read about these achievements, they appear planned and well thought out – that’s because they tell a story. These stories are easier to tell in retrospect, even your success stories will be the same.

The reality however is that things are complicated, it takes multiple plans to create a good outcome. These plans change with time and we learn, adapt and grow with time. For all this to happen, we have to make a start somewhere and create an opportunity for us to be on this journey.

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great meaning

Not every great achievement started great – they all have success and failure stories. If we keep waiting for the perfect situation to start or to be great even before we start, we get closer to failure. We have to start with what we have and from where we are. Along the journey, we will figure out how things work and make the best of the situation. All success stories are built this way.

You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great

Zig Ziglar

Of course, you will find failures along this journey, but we ought to learn from these mistakes and grow. We can’t plan all these failures, but we can decide how we act and improve. Once we start, its momentum will carry us forward and take us on to the paths of glory. However, we can’t map them all out right from the beginning. We will need to have faith in the process and keep up our hard work. And that’s the central meaning of this quote – you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.

You don’t have to be great to start

As we have rambled in the previous subheading, this one is about splitting a large dream into multiple steps – bite-sized chunks from which you can focus on what you need to do. Most dreams fail right at the starting point because they are too large to fathom. This is precisely where you have to break down your mission and vision into tangible milestones.

You don’t need all the skills right from the beginning. If you want to be a top badminton athlete, you don’t begin by registering for the National Games. You begin by holding a bat, learning your stance, and building your stamina. You also work through identifying the competition, and the skills you need to develop and then pushing through. You will never be the top athlete when you begin, but you will be when you start the journey.

Also, the most important thing is to assess your strengths and areas that need improvement. We all need to work on something to become a finished product. Assuming that we have everything is a rather poor way to set goals. Completely unrealistic as well!

References:

About Zig Ziglar: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zig_Ziglar