Khach Me If You Can

2 words… so simple of a concept. Just start. It’s so easy to become stuck in a rut of overanalysis leading to the constant thought of pursuing your goals sabotaging your ability to actually achieve them. The idea that you need to know every minute detail of a plan from cradle to grave to even begin the first step towards achieving it has led to many barstool conversations that begin with “if only”. If only I hadn’t twisted my ankle I would made it to the big league. If only I had thought of that product first, I would have been a millionaire. If only I had asked the prom queen out on a date, man my life would have been set. I was THIS close, but fate wasn’t on my side and I got the raw end of a deal. Do you think Michael Phelps would be one of the most accomplished athletes of all time if he propped himself up at the local watering hole telling anyone who would listen about how genetically gifted he was to swim and how if he really wanted to he could be the greatest, or do you think he got in the pool and started swimming?

You know that feeling when someone says something that strikes a nerve and makes you head and cheeks feel a rush of heat? An uncontrollable physiological reaction to something that your entire body wants to reject. There is one phrase so commonplace that is thrown around at whim that invokes that reaction in me.

“If it were meant to be it will be.”

It seems innocent enough. A phrase that is meant to comfort people down on their luck or inspire hope that an unlikely positive outcome isn’t truly out of grasp. But at it’s core it’s little more than a lazy excuse. Someone may read this that likes the idea of the universe controlling destiny and of fate. I’m not here saying that there isn’t fate or supernatural universe forces as play in our day to day lives. Trying to definitively dismiss these ideas is the same as me giving a lecture on brain surgery or quantum dynamics… to put it simply, I don’t know shit about any of that. What I do know is that people who are too afraid to leave their comfort zone in at least an effort to make their dreams a reality fall back on the warm, comforting, passing of their own accountability and responsibility that the phrase “if it were meant to be it will be” creates. In order to just start you need to take responsibility for moving towards your goals and reject the soft cushy padded walls of cliched and supernatural excuses. Just Start.

Self help gurus will tell you you need to believe in yourself. You need to believe the actualization of what you want is possible before you set out to achieve it. You need to believe that your goal will happen no matter what if you work hard enough. The truth is, you can do everything right, you can work your ass off, and still fall short. Belief in yourself is by no means trivial and should be something you have, but so much time is wasted trying to find that self confidence that it delays the actions required to progress towards what it is you want. Just start.

I want to run a marathon someday. Just start running.

I want to lose weight. Just start exercising.

I want to start a business. Just start working.

I want to write a blog someday. Just start writing.

Well… the last example is how these words got here in the first place. I’m not a writer, I’ve never particularly enjoyed writing. But the experiences I’ve lived and the lessons from those experiences have been bouncing off the walls of my skull for sometime waiting to be let out. I’ve outlined blogs, books, even set calendar reminders for myself over the last year that. My phone has vibrated in my pocket countless times at which point I look at my own words staring back at me, “START WRITING”. That’s a good idea I think… Maybe I’ll get started on that tomorrow. Tomorrow turns into a week, which turns into a month, and well… you get the point.

Am I any good at writing? I don’t have a fucking clue. If I’m not, this will go nowhere, but there will be no “if only” and if something comes of this it will because of those 2 little words “just start”. There is no grandiose plans of a blog renowned by thousands of people, of the compilation of a book, of this ever turning into anything more than words on a page, but those things without a doubt will never happen if I don’t just start.

My name is Billy Khachadourian. I’m a triathlete (I can’t believe it took me this many lines to inject that little nugget of information, our kind is worse than vegans and crossfitters in that respect.). I like endurance races. I like to climb big mountains. I like to do hard things… I imagine the things I write about will be focused on these activities with a blend of useful information, introspective thoughts, reviews of things I try, how-tos, event reports, and anything else I deem relevant at the time. (That’s right this is MY blog!) From my experiences I’ve received plenty of lessons from the school of hard knocks, I’ve met people so interesting it’s hard to believe they aren’t fiction, I’ve seen some of the most remote places on the planet, and along the way I’ve learned a lot about myself and how to live a rewarding life. This blog is the next step out of my comfort zone.

Just start.