Beginnings are important. On Sunday the Muslim community began the observance of Ramadan, which honors the prophet Muhammad's first revelation (and the beginning of the Quran). Like the Christians who celebrate Christmas and Easter, countless people around the world who celebrate the New Year on January 1, the Jewish people who celebrate their new year (Rosh Hashanah) in late summer/early autumn each year, and the day of our birth that each of us celebrate each year, beginnings are important and frequently remembered, honored and celebrated.

Success is no different: it's important to remember your beginnings. Maybe you current success journey had a fantastic beginning and you'll always fondly remember those days. Maybe it was really challenging and you're extremely thankful that you're not in that place anymore. But regardless of how you started your success journey, beginnings matter. Why? Because beginnings can be a source of encouragement and motivation and they can keep you humble.

I do think it's important to have a way of being reminded about where you began this journey. Why? Because when you look back at where you began it can remind you that you can indeed do it again, that you've gotten this far and made this much progress, that you started for a reason that you still believe in and are still committed to working towards, exactly how far you still have to go and that you can't (and shouldn't) stop now, that you've faced challenges in the past and conquered them and can conquer this challenge too, and/or be a reminder why you're doing what you're doing.

Hopefully reflecting back on your beginning will help keep you focused on and inspired by what's in front of you, the destination you planned to reach from the beginning. But if when you look back at where you began and look ahead and you realize that you don't really have a destination or you realize that you didn't really know where you were going but now you see the signs, it's OK to make an adjustment or change your destination or even put this success journey to bed to start a new one because things aren't as they were when you began. What does your success journey beginning remind you?