“Every single moment is a new beginning.”
— T.S. Eliot
Go ahead, let it go
- Publish it
- Start the promotion
- Send the email
- Launch the new product or service
- Begin the meeting
- Assign responsibilities for the new project
- Catch the flight
- Build the new website
- Make the phone call
- Attend the conference
- Announce your candidacy
Cue the music!
It’s the most delicious moment in the world of commerce, the initial beginning of anything.
Certainly, many of us celebrate that moment and other moments too that keep most businesses in business. As with every new product or service there is that bell curve of activity including a stimulating launch, the exhilarating elevation, a troublesome plateau, and an inevitable atrophy before another next new product or service arrives.
However, for many of us, the simple beginning moment consistently drives us forward. We celebrate it. We’re always paying attention so we’re eager to start something else, and for many of us, that initial beginning moment even has its own soundtrack.
The Lakmé Moment
For the longest time now, I have been calling the beginning moment for most everything the Lakmé Moment after the famous song “Flower Duet” that plays early in the 1883 French Opera called Lakmé by Léo Delibes.
For me that song is all about strength, beauty, teamwork, emotion, exhilaration, and seductive higher elevation.
British Airways heard all that too because they used the “Flower Duet” music for their long-standing British Airways television advertisements — specifically their legendary 1989 “Face” commercial which featured thousands of people moving across the desert in Utah to form a giant, smiling, winking face and the globe. The sweeping, serene melody became synonymous with the airline’s brand for years.
If you are not familiar with “Flower Duet” or the Brisish Airlines TV Commerical, see and listen to them below.
United Airlines likes to use George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” music to simulate grace and elevation but my money is on the “Flower Duet!”
What are the Key Psychological Benefits of Starting Something
The Fresh Start Effect – Coached by behavioral scientists, this phenomenon shows that people are significantly more likely to take action on goals (like starting a project or changing a habit) after temporal landmarks—such as a Monday, the first of the month, a birthday, or a new year. These landmarks create a psychological dissociation from past failures, framing them as “the old me” and leaving a clean slate for the current self.
Aspiration and Hope – Positive psychology heavily emphasizes hope—the belief in a better future combined with the pathways to get there. Beginnings naturally ignite hope by shifting focus from past setbacks to future possibilities, releasing positive anticipation and intrinsic motivation.
Cognitive Reframing and Optimism – Starting something new encourages a growth mindset. It forces the brain to shift from a fixed or defensive state into an exploratory, curious mode, making us more receptive to learning and creative problem-solving.
Momentum and Self-Efficacy – According to self-efficacy theory, succeeding at small initial steps builds confidence. The psychological weight of starting is often the hardest barrier; once crossed, the momentum of early progress creates a positive feedback loop of accomplishment.
Winning Follows Just Getting Started
I bring up all this chatter about confidently getting going and celebrating those moments because fresh beginnings provide more opportunities to learn, improve, and eventually shine.
Enthusiasm adds momentum. I can say that because very soon my wife and I will be boarding another airplane ride for another work reward trip. For the second time in the past three years I won a major Motorola Motivators Award for being the Top Motorola Representative on the West Coast Sales Team.
Motivators is Motorola’s annual recognition program honoring the top contributors who demonstrate excellence across performance, professionalism, and impact over the course of a year.
This award comes with a reward trip for two, another week of vacation time, generous spending monies, and premium accommodations. Along with other winners and their partners around the country we’ll all be flying to Virginia Beach, Virginia this year to be saluted and spoiled quite nicely!
Winning awards with reward trips can be habit forming. I have already brought my darling wife on five of these awards trips, plus another major award with a major stipend that funded our participation in an extended family reunion in Italy.
Each successful campaign brings more confidence for even better campaigns. However, a major trick for consistently winning more awards or promotion, is not being afraid of getting started:
- Walk into that room of strangers
- Join that new conference call
- Write the blog post
- Send out the inventions
- Think things through entirely to be ready
- Make yourself available
- Share your humor
- Challenge your customers
Celebrate every time you start something! It’s worth it and enjoy your favorite music during those moments too!
The extra enthusiasm of each new beginning needs to carry you past those occasional moments when things might fizzle out due to the economy, logistics, pricing, competition, messaging, or wandering customers interest.
Perhaps, Zig Ziglar said it best, “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
Get going! The world is waiting for you!
If you are not familiar with “Flower Duet” listen to it here:
See that commercial here:
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