Need Patience at Start of New Projects (or Resumption of Old Ones)

After my operation last July, in which my sternum was cut apart to allow the surgeon access to my heart, I had a necessarily slow recovery to allow for the rib cage to fuse back together. Physical therapy for my lower body could proceed sooner while my upper body was healing. I was walking the day after surgery and a month later began light running in place. I was assigned certain body stretches to perform with my legs while waiting for the sternum restriction protocol to be lifted, afterwards allowing me once again to stretch my arms and upper body...that last stage didn't begin until September.  Being a runner, I was interested in seeing what my prospects in this area were...my surgeon, a runner himself, had given me every indication that once I had recovered from the surgery to repair my aortic aneurism and replace a congenitally defective heart valve, I would be able to resume this activity. The block I live on is relatively long...seven tenths of a mile, but short from a distance runner's perspective. In my weeks of recovery I would regularly attempt to run the whole lap around the block but would rarely make it to the halfway point before needing to stop and walk.  It wasn't until three months after surgery that I was able to run the complete circuit nonstop...and from that point my progress drastically improved.  I ran a 5K race in December and two months ago, a half-marathon followed by a ten-mile race in March. This article seems to be all about running but it can apply to anything I'm undertaking, either for the first time or after a period of interruption or decline.  It may seem at first to take forever to make any progress, and the temptation will be to throw in the towel and give up. That's why the standards at this stage have to be easier and gradual.  Getting started and not giving up are instrumental here...I need to cut myself a little slack when it comes to starting something new that I really want to accomplish. I'm embarking on an ambitious new intellectual project that eventually stands to dwarf my running, but right now I'm taking those slow and easy steps...