Now You Begin

You can’t change the past.

But you think about it often. You beat yourself up for coming up short. You talk negatively to yourself because of something you failed to do yesterday.

What you need is a simple Latin phrase I wrote about in Building the Best: “Nunc Coepi.” It means, “Now I begin.”

You can’t go back and rewrite how you handled that situation. You can’t undo the missed opportunity. But you can begin again. Right now.

If the best athletes in the world can move on from a bad play and refocus on the next one, why shouldn’t you?

The past only dictates your future if you let it. But when you act in alignment with the person you want to become—starting today—you give yourself a chance to write a better story. Said differently, the past can inform you, but it doesn’t have to define you.

So the next time you reach a decision point:
Instead of stalling…
Instead of spiraling…
Just say to yourself:
“Nunc Coepi.”

Don’t wait. Don’t overthink. Just begin.

And if you come up short again? Good news, if you are lucky enough, you get to begin again.

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