Getting to ONE.

So you’re stuck at zero.

Zero motivation, maybe.

Zero time. Zero inspiration. Zero action.

Zero words written. Zero steps taken. Zero miles run.

Zero customers obtained. Zero is hard. Zero tells you lies.

“You’re never gonna do it, don’t bother trying.
This is where you belong, just keep watching TV. That’s easy, that’s comfortable.”

Zero keeps you inert. It’s immobilizing, it’s keeping you stagnant. It’s impossible to move when nothing pushes you from zero.

So what’s the most important thing when getting from zero to one?

Action. Movement.

Even the littlest slice of it.

An ounce of it. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

One action can compound. A tiny movement can lead to a bigger one, a longer one, a movement of greater impact.

You have inertia. You’re moving. You’ve gone from zero to one.

Before you even realize it, you’ve begun to gain the most important factor in moving from one to infinity…

Momentum. 

But back to that inertia, that tiny push. That butterfly flutter, that minuscule ounce of something. How does it start?

It starts with you.

It starts with you using every single morsel of will you possibly have left to go from zero—to just one. Do one. Get to one.

A short story about me

I wanted to write a new post on my website for the better part of a year, but kept putting it off because I didn’t have the perfect post or wasn’t sure what to write about, or felt like a fraud, or worried what others would think when I finally published a post.

I was absolutely and positively stuck at zero. 

When I weighed nearly 30 pounds heavier than I do now, I knew I needed to do something about it.

But I was paralyzed.

Paralyzed by the thought of doing something active. I’d have to finally admit to myself how out of shape I was, and that I was just stuck there. At zero. For months. Years. And that it was on me—no other excuses—nobody else to blame.

One day, I finally had enough. I wanted a win. I wanted something more than zero.

One run. One sweat. One step, even.

So I ran. Slowly. Painfully. I made it a few laps around the track. Maybe a kilometer. I survived, and I had done it.

Zero to one.

That was seven years ago. Since that first kilometer, I’ve added 3,645 more kilometers.

Being stuck at zero sucks. It’s hard. Just get to one. Go from there.