A few years ago I changed my relationship to food and exercise. I wasn’t sleeping well, little aches and pains got bigger and more frequent, and my blood pressure was steadily climbing. To add insult to injury, even my more generous-fitting clothing items were getting too snug for comfort. But ultimately it was about my health.
It wasn’t that I was eating poorly or doing the wrong activities. I was simply doing too much of one and not enough of the other. Simple, right? Invert the proportions and you’ll be fine.
Doing that simple thing wasn’t that simple. It required that I shift the pattern of my days. It required stopping myself when I went for the extra snack or pushing myself to get out of bed earlier and move even when I reeeaaalllly didn’t want to.
It required me to have a long-term view of what I was trying to accomplish and the patience and perseverance to see it through. ‘But where should I start?’ The answer wasn't where to start, because there were several things that all required some attention. The answer was simply to start.
Start. Just Start.
Getting started is often the biggest hurdle to anything new.
“Where do I start?”
“Will it work?”
“Can I do it?”
“What if it doesn't go the way I think it will?”
(Spoiler alert: it won’t).
An amazing thing happens when we start something - we build momentum. Energy creates energy. Doing things helps us to see other things we can do. Looking and listening with intentionality gives us insight into a bigger picture than we see when we start.
A physicist could speak with greater clarity about momentum, but I will tell you that starting to move makes the next steps easier.
Have You Started Marketing?
I often hear from school nutrition leaders who say they know they need to start marketing their programs, or to level up the marketing they’re already doing, but they don’t know where to start. The very idea of starting something new or different can be overwhelming.
And yet we know the result of not taking that first step: nothing will happen. What’s more, it could even be less than nothing - a reversing of course.
Because it’s not just that things will continue to lie fallow and empty. It’s that you’ll miss out on seeing peoples’ responses, miss out on learning how certain messages connect and how some just don’t, and miss out on the excitement and enthusiasm you and your team will feel when people take notice of what you’re doing.
See how we can help you build momentum and level up your marketing.
Adapt And Keep Moving
There’s a nearly 100% chance that you will have to adapt to something and change course. That’s just being able to acknowledge what happens to us in our daily lives because none of us can know or predict everything.
Starting something doesn’t just create momentum, it tones muscles you know you need to use, and even helps some muscles you forgot about to emerge as valuable pieces of the plan. The more you do the more you’ll see you’re able to do.
When I established an eating and exercise regimen that was delivering results, I saw that other aspects of that process could deliver significant benefits. And so I started to adjust my pattern to incorporate new things.
Today I’m sleeping better, have fewer aches and pains, and my blood pressure is healthier than it’s been in years. I reflect on those things when my alarm rings in the morning, or when I’m wandering aimlessly into the kitchen, and it gives me momentum to stay the course.
So start something today. If it’s new training for your team, great! If it’s working with new farms and vendors, great! And if it’s marketing your school meal program, we’d love to see if we can help.
The first step is the hardest, so take it today and get ready to see how far you can go!
Knowledge Is Power!
Getting started begins with assessing where you are and where you want to go. Our social media report card can give you those insights. Schedule a call today.
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