Just do it

Are you guilty of waiting so long that you never start?

Waiting so long until everything is perfect, and you never start.

Waiting until you know all the answers, so you won’t make a mistake, and you never start?

Start what? The “what” is that thing you feel passionate about but have not done. It is whatever you are putting off until you know everything there is to know.

I was talking to a friend this week about the people that spend lots of time preparing, and then they never launch.

I know I have done that many times in my life.

It took me years to feel confident enough to teach my first workshop. I had the knowledge, but “doubt” was riding shotgun.

I spent years not feeling comfortable enough to speak to groups. When I finally did, nothing bad happened and now I never shut up!

I don’t know if I would’ve gotten my memoir, Badass and Bendy, finished and published if my husband had not pushed me to do it. Even with his pushing I may not have gotten it done without a good friend telling me it was something that needed to be out in the world. I was waiting and waiting until I felt like it was perfect.

There is no such thing as perfection, yet I strive for it all the time.

I always work to make things just a little bit better.

Work to know just a little bit more.

To take more classes or workshops or read more books.

To do more revisions of my writing.

You can never be so prepared that you will not make a mistake. We learn from our mistakes. Learning by doing is something you can’t get in a book.

Just start.

Do your best.

Improve when you make mistakes. We waste much of our lives waiting and wanting.

I guess it boils down to fear.

Fear keeps us from moving forward. Fear steals life from us.

Fear causes us to spend time worrying about being wrong,

or not being worthy,

or not being loved,

or not being smart enough,

or not being talented enough.

Fear keeps us in the shadow of what our life can be.

We don’t have unlimited amount of time to do all the things we want to do.

It is never the right time to do what you feel driven to do.

You just have to start. Take baby steps or dive in headfirst, it doesn’t matter as long as you try.

I love this quote from Jon Acuff, “be brave enough to be bad at something new”.