“Well, you gotta start somewhere,” I said to myself the other morning.

I woke up with a mind full of ideas, and about an hour until I had to leave for work. There was so much that I wanted to do, and it was a little overwhelming. I was thinking about projects at work, an upcoming Christmas party, playing guitar, writing a blog, New Year’s Eve plans, writing a story, reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (part of the Stormlight Archive, fun read), hitting the trails, doing some push ups, and the list went on… and on. All this at 5:15am, and I had only been awake for a few minutes.

“Just breathe,” I said to myself. “Start there, and lay a foundation for success.”

So I decided to close me eyes and breathe. It was an exercise in meditation, and it was hard to get started. It takes a lot of effort to calm a mind, to de-clutter thoughts; but once you get started, it begins to make more sense. After about 5-7 minutes, the feeling of anxiety had left; and instead, a sense of peace came over me. The need to do everything was replaced with do something, which is right where we need to be.

The rest of my time that morning was spent reading, and it was good.

I felt focused and ready to take on the day at my workplace, and I was very effective.

It was a good day, all the way into the night; and throughout the day I reflected on the idea of starting somewhere. All the good we bring to this world comes from intention, and success does not come without doing the work.

So what started as a breath, is actually a foundation for success.