Waiting To Be Ready

‘Waiting to be ready’ is something many of us suffer from which is akin to putting your life on hold hoping for perfect alignment of the stars, a lining up of ducks or wanting everything to be in order before we progress.

Over many years, I have come across people who talk a good game, but things never or rarely progress further than those initial conversations and they have an answer for their lack of progress. It’s usually a case of ‘could have’, ‘should have’ and ‘would have’. This is what I see as taking ‘armchair actions’, envisioning and building an idea from the safety of our armchair and minds with the actions not moving on beyond that. 

It’s important to take precautions and follow due diligence which takes time but this is different from procrastination or not taking actions because of expectations and conditions we have created. Is anyone ever truly ready for the next step? We always feel there is a need for more – study more, prepare more, investigate more, assess more. There will always be more, and we are at a risk of letting the fear of the unknown stop us in our tracks.

I love how Marie Forleo put it in the quote that says, “One of the most underrated secrets of success is to start before you’re ready”. An example that comes to mind is writing; as a content creator, I can wait to be ready, inspired, have clear thoughts, know the end of the storyline or I can just start to write knowing that the good stuff will emerge from what can be a chaotic start. 

Pursuing a passion, dream or goal falls into this space. There is always a way to start even if it’s not with all guns blazing. Your new business can co-habit with your current job until you get to the point where you are happy to go part time and eventually full time. That extra qualification can start with taking a few introductory summer school courses or even some self learning to fully gauge your interest and commitment and the career change can be tested out through secondment and job shadowing schemes.

What are you waiting to be ready for? And what will be the signs that you are ready? Will you truly ever feel ready or will there always be something that could be put in place? 

Here are some tips:

Discover or rediscover your why

Why does it matter that you achieve your goals or pursue your passion? How important are the things you talk about? Critically assess them and drop anyone that you are not truly passionate about and leave only those things that you would be willing to pay the price to achieve.

It is easier to procrastinate on actions that don’t light us up. Figure out your why and separate the wheat from the chaff. Relently pursue only what matters to you. 

Draw a line in the sand

Learning to draw a line in the sands is a good way to start. Define the actions you need to take to make your dreams a reality, write them down on paper, put timescales against them and names of those you will need to carry them out. This is creating a plan in its simplest form.

Be accountable

Let people you respect and who can hold you to account be aware of your plans; make sure they can challenge you and not give you an easy pass for not doing what you promised to do. They can’t force you to take action but they can make you squirm at the thought of not showing up.

Show up for you

We show up for our jobs, employers, friends and neighbours but too often when it comes to showing up for ourselves, we bail out. This is because we believe there are no consequences for not showing up for ourselves. It sounds insane to apologise to ourselves for not keeping our words but we are happy to apologise to others for the same thing.

Learning to value ourselves requires us to treat ourselves with the same respect that we offer to others. Showing up for yourself should never be an optional action or bottom of the pile decision.  

Reflect and change course

We need to constantly reflect on our progress and take necessary corrective actions to improve or get back on track. Even with the best intention, we will make some mistakes. As we step out in faith, there will be actions we can take, lessons to be learnt, corrections to be made and progress to be had. 

Stop waiting to be ready as it might be indefinite wait; think of what you can do today that moves you closer to your overall goal and take that little step today, then the next and the next until you find your flow. With each step comes more clarity, boldness and success.

Thanks for reading and sharing my post.