Are you ready? Normally when I hear this, I’m being asked if I’m ready to go. To physically leave my current location. I’m not talking about being ready in that sense. I’m referring to being ready to make a change, take action, do something different, start doing something, the list could go on. So many people freeze up when asked this if the answer is “no.” I used to be one of them. I’m a very calculated person. I’m a planner. Yes, I have a physical planner as well as my electronic one that I do everything with. I used to not do anything without taking into consideration a rough calculated risk, and if I proceeded I went really slow to test the waters. Taking a calculated risk many times is a good thing. It is those times when you refuse to start because you can’t see what’s going to happen or where you’ll end up. What are the things you are not ready for? How many things have you not done because you simply didn’t feel ready? Are there things you’ve figured out when you just started? Lets talk about those things.
First off, what is it you aren’t ready for? Is it learning a new skill that seems daunting? Is it going into a new field you are interested in but know little about? Getting into a new relationship that seems unlikely to work? Making a large purchase for the first time? Any of these things no matter how big or small can make you turn the other way and say “not worth it.” But let me ask, do you really know that? Are you scared to do something new, get a new experience because it is something you’ve never done before? All new things take a little work of some sort. Learning that skill, learning the process of making a large purchase and the details that come with it. Learning to be in a new relationship of whatever type usually means some level of vulnerability. We’ve all done things we weren’t ready for. If its smaller, we tend to think about it less and just do it, just start.
Second, how many things has not being ready stopped you from doing? If it is getting back into something old, there’s probably an updated or new way to do it to make your life easier. If its something new, what are the things that have stopped you? A relatively smaller detail like learning one of the skills required to do something new. Maybe you need multiple new skills and that takes time you don’t have. How about a perspective change? It seems we’re trained so much to seek out the risk involved in everything but we tend to stop there. How often do you consider the reward, and the long term benefits of the thing you’re thinking about doing or have always wanted to do? We’re such an instant gratification society today that we see the red flag of risk and we’re so blinded by that we don’t consider shoving that out of the way to look at what we could do long term. A little short term pain for long term reward.
Last I will ask, how many things were you not ready for that you’ve figured it out? This is the name of the game in childhood. As kids, that’s your choice, figure it out. There is a first for everything. How many times do we pull a baby back up who is learning to walk? They figure it out eventually. How many times do we fall over on a bike the first time our training wheels come off? My guess is multiple before we finally get it. There is a reason we practice at everything. We’re not ever totally ready to do something the first time. We have to practice and develop the skill. After a given time, we figure it out though. Do we figure everything out? No. Are we good at everything? No. But we’re never really ready the first time we try anything.
So I ask this. Why as adults do we turn away from things that scare us? We’re so afraid to try new things because we don’t want to look foolish if we don’t feel ready. We have to start somewhere. What do we do as kids? We have parents to teach us. We have mentors and coaches for everything because they’ve done it. They have succeeded before and now teach the craft and the skill. If you’re the type that needs to figure it out on your own, that’s okay. Don’t let that stop you from something that could end up very rewarding. Don’t let “I’m not ready” be your excuse for not doing something. Start small and build up the smaller skills needed so that ultimate leap doesn’t seem quite so daunting.
Here are my tips:
-Don’t tell yourself you can’t do something- you probably really can
-break a big thing into small tasks so you build up
-Go into something knowing you might not succeed the first time. Thats Okay
-Do some research first. Go in with realistic expectations so you don’t get overwhelmed