Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle

We do it all the time don’t we?

In this world where everyone can pick and choose what to display online, we often see the best of someone’s life more often than their worst. We discover a new-to-us gardener and drool over their beautiful Instagram photos. We watch a YouTube video of someone making hundreds of bars of soap at a time. We check out a book from the library showing how a famous person decorated their house.

How quickly we fall into the comparison trap.

I’ve been guilty of saying “I want to be so-and-so when I grow up” (never mind I’ll be 40 next year). I see where certain people currently are in life, and where I am, and feel like the gap between us is insurmountable.

Food choices. Exercise. Gardening practices. Raising animals. Natural health care. Spending habits. Decorating or renovating a home. Writing. Parenting.

I could never get to where they are.

Let me remind you of something my friend: Those people were once beginners too. Just like you. Just like me.

Sure their “beginning” may have started earlier in their life than you, years or decades ago, but that’s their story. Not yours.

Your story can begin today. Or yesterday. Or tomorrow.

We need to stop being afraid of being a beginner. Sure we want to be the best at something, we want people to like and follow us, we want to be looked up to, we want to be successful. But big things often have small beginnings.

I love journals and notebooks, and I found this one at a grocery store last fall. I had a writing coach encourage me to start keeping track of even the smallest things in my writing life. Monthly stats, little victories, words of encouragement from others, etc.

It’s become a tangible way to look back and see how far I’ve come, and will continue to be a place I can go when (not if) I get discouraged.

Maybe you start taking pictures. Put together a physical or digital album to watch your progress. Maybe you draw pictures or write bullet points in a journal. Just remember to include dates, so one day when you’ve reached your own “middle”, you can look back at your beginning and be an encouragement to others in their new beginnings.

Start small. Let the successes of others encourage you instead of intimidating you. Allow yourself grace and time, and you’ll be much more likely to succeed AND be much more content while you pursue your goals.

🌱 Want to eat healthier? Choose one meal (or even just one ingredient) and step it up a notch. Not to perfection, just slightly better than the choice you currently make. And once that option works, step up to the next level.

🌱 Want to grow a flower or vegetable garden? Instead of tilling up half an acre your first year, put a few containers on the deck, or a couple of raised beds in the backyard, and then reevaluate next year.

🌱 Want to cut back on the amount of screen time your kids have? Choose just one day to eliminate that afternoon show and play a board game or go outside together.

Change doesn’t happen overnight, and if it does, it almost never sticks. So choose your small changes, give yourself grace to make mistakes and leave things unfinished, and allow time to pass. You’ll get there. #preachingtomyself

Be okay with being a beginner.

This post is part of a new beginning for me! Starting today, I’ll be teaming up each month with some other writers, participating in The Blogging Bee — an online gathering reminiscent of the quilting bees and sewing bees of days past when women would bring their work together to create art.

If you enjoyed this post about “Beginnings,” take a look at these posts from other farmers, small business owners, homesteaders, and creatives:

The Wonder of Hatching Chicks by Megan Temte

The Beginning by Megan of Rudy Lane Flower Farm

To Run Through a Meadow by Jessica of Storyteller Farm

He has made everything beautiful in its time.

Ecclesiastes 3:11