Starting is a Muscle

I was working with a student over the summer in a coaching session – he is a rising Senior in high school – and he was struggling with getting all his chores and extra work accomplished during the day.

It’s summer and he has hours ahead of him each day… most of which are spent playing X-box with his brother. His chores and extra work, like looking for scholarships for college, probably wouldn’t take more than two hours total a day.

In our session, we realized he felt too weak to finish all his chores and do his work before he did something fun.

Usually when we think that we need to take breaks, or do something else, it comes down to an idea that we could accomplish that task if we felt like it, or if some other condition were met.

More to the truth of the matter: we are too weak and don’t have the stamina or discipline to accomplish the task.

The benefit of being this honest is that the next step is obvious: build the stamina.

For the next two weeks, this student has agreed to build the muscle and finish all of his chores first thing in the morning and see what happens. Like going to a training camp in the summer to build the muscle of starting to do the task.

How strong is your starting muscle?