You carry a small bundle of worries about beginning Shabbat, and you suspect they are unique to you — proof, somehow, that you are not cut out for this. What if I do it wrong. What will people think. What if I cannot keep it up. What if I start and then stop. Let these worries out into the open, because in the light they shrink.
Every one of them has been carried by every beginner before you. They are not a verdict. They are simply the ordinary weather of starting something that matters.
The worry is not a verdict on whether you should begin. It is the ordinary weather of beginning.
Naming Them Loosens Them
What if I do it wrong — you will, in small ways, and that is how beginners learn; doing it wrong while trying is far closer to the spirit of the day than not trying at all. What will people think — those who keep Shabbat were beginners once and tend to meet a beginner with welcome, not judgment.
What if I cannot keep it up — then you keep it this week, and worry about next week when it comes; the Torah speaks of remembering and keeping the day, not of guaranteeing in advance that you never falter. A worry named is a worry that has lost most of its power over you.
Take the Worries to a Person
The worries that are really questions — about what the day requires, what is permitted, what keeping it actually involves — are not ours to answer, because they are halacha. They belong in the hands of a living rabbi who can speak to your real situation and a community that can absorb you with patience.
So do not carry the bundle alone, and do not let it talk you out of beginning. Bring it to someone who keeps the day. You will likely find that what felt like an obstacle was only the threshold — and that you were closer to crossing it than you knew.