“Hard is trying to rebuild yourself, piece by piece, with no instruction book, and no clue as to where all the important bits are supposed to go.”  ― Nick Hornby

Starting over, or starting anything new, is a lot like launching a rocket into space. Most of the energy is spent just getting off the ground. 

You have to pull yourself out of the gravitational force of doing things the way they’ve always been done. You have to leave the “solid ground” of what you know and be willing to launch yourself into uncharted and unexplored territory.

Starting over may feel scary rather than sexy. When you think about it, sex probably didn’t feel sexy the first time around.  But you kept at it because you had the desire to get good at it. You believed that it would be a lot more fun when you did.

Like first time sex, launching your second act may feel awkward, confusing, and downright embarrassing. But if you keep at it, you will eventually feel sexy as you start to understand where “all the important bits are supposed to go”.

President Kennedy challenged us to go to the Moon a few decades ago. He didn’t know how we were going to do it. He didn’t worry about why we should do it. I love this quote from his Moon speech at Rice Stadium in 1962.

“We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade…because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win…”

This is what starting over is about. Choosing to do it. Choosing to do something that requires the best of your energies and skills. Choosing it with the intention to win – to design and build the life that’s worthy of you and the contribution you have to make to this world.

I invite you to read and listen to President Kennedy’s entire speech, especially if you haven’t heard it before now. And if you are ready for the next adventure of your lifetime, don’t wait. Choose to start over and choose to be ecstatic about your choice.

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