How to Start Before You're Ready
“I have this dream. I know what I want to do. I even have a plan crafted in my mind of how to go about making it happen. BUT HOW DO I KNOW WHEN I’M READY TO START?”
Girl, lemme tell you I GET IT. I really do. When I was considering dropping out of grad school to pursue Hustle Sanely it was SUCH a fun dream. The thought of me sitting in my bright beautiful office all day creating organizational tools while sipping an AML (almond milk latte if you new here) with my pups at my feet...I can get DOWN with that. LIKE HECK YEAH SIGN ME UP. I imagined myself working on writing my first book, recording podcast episodes, creating mock ups of paper planners. Taking lunch breaks in the sunshine, and watering my plants between projects. I imagined not having to rush through my morning routine but getting to savor it as I set the pace for the rest of my day. It all seemed so cool in my mind.
But then I started thinking about other realities that came along with my decision dropping out of school to do Hustle Sanely full time:
Saying goodbye to job security
Saying goodbye to a steady paycheck
Explaining to my friends and family that I was going to drop out of school to run an online business (and if you listened to episode 001 of the podcast - you know that by this point, I’ve changed career paths oh like 15 times) I could just picture them rolling their eyes and shaking their heads while muttering “here we go again” under their breath.
The thought of starting something new is exciting - the dreaming up part is a thrill. But then it comes time to put your foot to the ground and start making moves and you feel kind of paralyzed by panic. This is when the doubt starts creeping in and thoughts like:
LOL NO WAY
I can’t do this
I have no idea how make this work
Start to take over your brain.
Well here’s the deal - that’s normal. Pretty much every person ever gets nervous to take on a dream they’ve never done before. Partly because it’s a lot of unknown and partly because usually the dream is so special to you that you don’t want to “mess up” and watch it come crashing down.
3 Things to Help You Start Before You’re Ready:
01. Take the pressure off of yourself to do it “right” immediately or to think there is only one way to accomplish something.
Chances are, you are not in the position where your life depends on your dream happening tomorrow. Which means you have time for trial and error. And let’s be real - for most things, there isn’t ONE WAY to achieve it anyway.
Example: Me creating digital planners - I didn’t go to design school or get any formal training in graphic design. I mean clearly I’m not an example of a traditional route - I’m an example of doing something in a round about way. Do I want to learn how to use legit design programs now? Heck yeah. It’ll make me a better planner designer. But when I started I was making worksheets in Powerpoint for my students so I used what I knew and created planning tools in Powerpoint. I knew that wasn’t conventional but I released myself of the pressure to only design using design-intended programs.
Another example:
My client she’s working a 9 to 5 that she enjoys but knows she wants more in the future. When we started working together she was afraid to start because she didn’t know what starting looked like. She didn’t know that she could do both things at once rather than having to quit her job to try out this dream she has. Once we worked through some mindset shifts together, she realized that she was putting an immense amount of pressure on herself that didn’t need to be there. Once she gave herself space to be freed from that pressure, she realized that she’s actually in an epic position to start this dream of hers because she can work on building her online business WHILE working her full time job. Then when the time comes and she is ready to transition out of her full time job she will have a foundation laid.
02. Be okay with starting small.
If you ask me, starting small is where it is at! Now this is not to be confused with putting forth half effort. You can still be 100% all in and still start small. When did we decide that small isn’t good enough? That if we can’t be at the BIG goal we don’t want to be anywhere? Small plans and small steps add up.
Example: You don’t start pre-school or kindergarten and expect to have your high school diploma within 3 months. You know going into it that it’s a process - that you have to attend school all the way through 12th grade to get that diploma.
Another example: I’m a weight lifter (not like a professional - I just life heavy for my workouts which fun fact I used to be a personal trainer) and when I started, I didn’t expect to back squat 200 pounds. I first had to learn how to squat the 45 pound bar, you know? Then month after month I could gradually add weight until I reached my goal of squatting over 200 pounds.
See? We take small steps every day but for some reason when it comes to dream work we wanna skip small and go straight to MEGA HUGE.
Sure, no one is clapping for you when you’re doing the small steps. But you’re not gonna get to the big stuff if you don’t go through the small stuff first.
Believe me - most people’s every day isn’t glamorous. So don’t throw in the towel when yours isn’t.
Small steps aren’t glamorous looking but girl they move the needle.
The difference between people who achieve their dreams and people that don’t is consistency. The willingness to keep making moves, even the small ones.
03. Understand that you’re never actually going to be 100% ready.
Here’s the truth - you will never get where you want to be if you wait until you’re ready. We can only spend so much time “researching” or preparing to make moves. There comes a point when research becomes a hindrance more than a help.
You’ve eventually got to DO SOMETHING instead of just reading articles about it or watching youtube videos on it. Guess what? You’re gonna screw up and you’re probably going to be terrible at first.
I consider myself a novice hand letterer. I’m decent but when I first started it was rough, friends. And I don’t practice consistently - which is something that I’ve been wanting to change.
The other night, I was sitting on the couch attempting to practice but I thought it would be a good idea to watch a few Instagram lettering tutorials for inspiration. BUT YALL - I sat my butt on the couch with my iPad and Apple Pencil next to me while I watched lettering videos for like 2 hours. I DID NOT practice my lettering at all. And I almost tricked myself into thinking that I spent 2 hours working on my lettering. NO. I spent 2 hours watching other people letter because I didn’t feel ready to jump back into lettering.
Friend, don’t mistake research for action.
You have to start before you’re ready or you’re going to be standing right where you are forever. Make a move...even a small one. Because small steps add up remember?
If you wanna dive deeper into this conversation, tune in to episode 006 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast: