A piece of advice.

La distance n’y fait rien; il n’y que le premier pas qui coûte. - Marquise Du Deffand

My father always said that the hardest thing about running was putting your shoes on and leaving the house.  He also said ‘Read the fucking question!’ (priceless advice on how to solve any mathematical problem) and ‘Always take a book’ (priceless advice on how to avoid being bored, although these days phones have games, so who needs books?)

Anyway, back to his first observation; on a literal level, useless to me, as I don’t run.  Fortunately, us humans are rarely constrained by the literal.  Fortunate also is the fact that we are not constrained by the truth; everyone knows running is difficult.  It is not the donning of the shoes and the exiting of the building that makes running one of the most hated sports in which to partake, it is the fact that it is hard, bloody hard (not to mention boring to many of us).  So, despite the facts that this comment is both inapplicable to me and not true, it still exists as a useful piece of wisdom.  Similarly, Marquise Du Deffand’s observation above doesn’t stand up to scrutiny from all corners.  The fact that Saint Denis walked two miles with his head in his hands would surely be found remarkable by anyone (even a chicken would be astonished, not for the walking headless part of course, but for the holding the head part…opposable thumbs…), but as Du Deffand pointed out, the distance is not hard; it is the first step that is difficult.  True enough I guess, in some respect at least.

Despite being a proper adult, I am slowly coming to the conclusion that I think I will never feel experienced enough to impart wisdom.  Why’s this?  Cerebral malfunction?  Personality trait?  Lack of confidence?  Appreciation that the world is far too complicated to comment on?  Obviously I don’t know, not experienced enough.  But despite my misgivings about my own qualifications to advise, I’m going to give it a shot.  And it links in with all these comments about first steps.  Of course, what I’m about to advise is not original, but I don’t think that matters.

So, here goes.  I’ve always found the most difficult decisions in life are those leading to the first step.  This is not because it is a difficult decision to make, for as soon as you start deciding on a decision, you have really already decided.   The reason it is difficult is usually because you’re stuck in a rut, and ruts, by definition are difficult to get out of.  Not because they’re big (because they’re not big, they’re just ruts) but because they’re familiar, comfortable, easy, and safe.  And a rut’s not always a bad place to be; I have found myself in many fine ruts over the years.  But we all know there are bad ruts, and they are always hard to get out of.  This leads me to my advice, my simple advice; when you start thinking about making a decision, you have really already made the decision.  What you need to do is put your shoes on and run out the door…