Why Starting Something New Feels Terrifying

Like a creepy horror story, starting something new can be downright scary! Beginnings can foreshadow the chilling unknowns, imagined losses, and chaos of all kinds. But even without the doubts and fears, starting can be stalled and just plain hard to do.

It’s called resistance, which is just a fancy term for sticking to the old. And, it has a very real source – your brain. It turns out that the organ that’s often curious about new things is not always a fan of doing new things. Why so?

The brain is very good at routines and old patterns, because they’re quick and easy. It’s a great synthesizer combining learned pieces into habits and skills. Think of clothes washing, driving a car, or even reading. Once you know how to do those, the little pieces are automated: you don’t even need to think about them.

It’s not that those brain waves – or you – are lazy. It’s just that routines are faster. But as the hare found out, faster isn’t always better. In fact, effort has great rewards! Work out and you get stronger muscles. Learn more and you get smarter. Try, do, or master more, and you become more confident. The comfort zone simply can’t compare to the prizes of effort. In fact, it usually has no prizes at all. And that’s another scary place!

It turns out that both the heart and the brain – your fears and habits – can stall a start. So, what are you left with? It’s the body to the rescue! When it’s hard to start something new, move! The smallest act-ion – like picking up a pen to write or a phone to text – can be the start of a whole lot of new! In fact, you can even stall the stall by starting there!