Harder to Start than to Finish

I climbed Mount Columbia today with my son, and it was definitely a climb, and not a casual hike.  Like all 14ers, it presented unique challenges – loose rock, steep trails, and hard to find cairns marking the route.  During the climb, we talked about the obvious metaphors of life and climbing, and what struck me was that the hardest part of the climb was getting in the car to drive to the trailhead.  I came up with a half-dozen excuses why we should do the climb next week:  Allergies, sore muscles from earlier workouts, Sunday traffic, plain-tired, and “What about catching up on some work?”   We almost didn’t go, and through experience, I knew that we “had” to go.  Quitting before we even start would certainly leave me in a grumpy mood.   Like a physics lesson, it’s easier to keep an object moving than it is to get an object moving from a dead stop.  I have seldom wondered if I would make it to a summit once I started climbing, and that is the metaphor for life.  You have to put yourself out there, and take some risks.  Not starting an initiative guarantees zero risk, zero success, and in essence, a 100-percent failure rate.  Are you delaying anything you know you should start?