The first step isn't the hardest

Contrary to what people say, the first step isn't the hardest.

Think about it. You have taken the first step in so many things. You wanted to start a YouTube channel, so you made the first video. You wanted a fresh start in January, so you bought a journal and wrote your goals for the new year. You wanted to break an addiction, and at some point, you did take that first step.

Nothing stopped you.

The first step is actually the easiest because it comes with all the excitement. The rush of something new. The fantasy of who you might become.

It's what comes after that quietly unravels people.

The second step. The fifteenth. The forty third when no one is watching and the excitement has worn thin.

I wonder sometimes if we've been lied to. If "the first step is the hardest" is just something we tell ourselves so we can feel proud for starting, without ever having to finish.

But here's what I'm learning. If you trick your mind into believing the first step is easy, you can take it every day. And if you can take it every day, consistency stops looking so impossible.

Maybe that's the real work. Not the beginning. The returning.