Just start!

By Steve Martile  »  For my entire life I’ve always wondered how people were able to figure out what it is they love to do and how they just knew to do it.  For a very long time I wasn’t sure what I wanted and it drove me nuts. A coworker of mine ran into a similar problem.  He was struggling to advance his career.  He was caught between two options.  One option was to work towards becoming a Professional Engineer and the other option was to work towards completing his classification as a First Class Engineer. Both positions had lucrative earning potential and would create the sort of lifestyle he was aiming towards, but he still wasn’t sure what to do.  He wasn’t clear on his goal.  When he spoke to me he said, “Steve, I think I want to become licensed as a Professional Engineer but I’m not sure.  What do you think I should do?”  I said, “Well, maybe I can help you by sharing this story.” Last November I enrolled myself in a program called the Self Expression and Leadership Program (SELP) at Landmark Education.  As part of the program I made a commitment to participate in a community project for the duration of the course.  I wasn’t sure what project to pick but I always thought it would be neat to be a motivational speaker.  Seeing that I already worked with high school students I decided to speak about personal growth at a local high school for my project.           At the end of the SELP I failed to complete my project.  Along the way I did meet and connect with some amazing people and one of them was Lori-Ann Jakel.  It was Lori-Ann who asked me to create an article for Confidence Bound.  I did write that article and it was published in January of 2007.  It was the first article that I wrote and had published.  It wasn’t long after I published my second article and I’ve come to love writing so much that I’m currently publishing a weekly web log (blog) online. When I was finished telling the story to my coworker I looked at him and he said, “The answer to my question is in your message.”  He then paused for a little bit and thought about it and then said, “Ok, I’ll start to take my tests for my Professional Engineer License and see what happens.”, “Great” I said. “Then you’ll be able to see what other possibilities come out of that first step.”  If you don’t know what it is that you want, that’s ok.  The quickest and easiest way to find out what it is that you want is to start something.  Maybe you want more money, a better career, more fulfilling relationships, or more spiritual connectedness.  Whatever it is, take the first step because when you do, you’ll surprise yourself from what opens up as you enter into a whole new realm of possibilities.  It is in this realm that you’ll truly discover who you are and what it is that makes you happy.   •My personal blog is filled with insights on personal growth and my aim is to inspire others to achieve their own dreams and desires by learning from example.  Included in my articles are some tricks using NLP and some other tools that I have found useful along the way.  Feel comfortable to check out my blog.