If you read last week’s blog post, Stepping Outside of Your Comfort Zone, then you know I aimed to focus on the importance of taking chances in life. And, I really wanted to expand on that with this week’s blog post- which is why it is about the concept of not waiting until you feel completely “ready“,  because there really is no “ready”- just a “ready enough“.

I’m sure you’ve heard this before; and if not this exact wording for the phrase, maybe something like “there’s no time like the present“- John Trusler, or “being prepared and being ready are two different things…”- Ashley Ambirge, or even, “Sometimes we have the dream but we are not ourselves ready for the dream. We have to grow to meet it.” – Louis L’Amour Bendigo Shafter.

The point is that, although you can try to get your mindset in a place to feel more comfortable with trying something new, different, or out of your comfort zone, you will never fully feel ready until after you’ve done it.

Sometimes in life we wait for those “Ah-ha” moments, or epiphanies, that may just never happen. We want something to indisputably assure us that what we are doing, or what we plan to walk into, is something that we are ready to handle. But, if we live life like this, there is a good chance that we will end up missing out on a lot of important opportunities.

I found an enlightening article titled You’ll Never Be “Ready,” So Stop Waiting by Matt Duczeminski, about this very phenomenon. In his article, Matt talks about how it was hard for him to come to the realization that sometimes we can’t let time take the lead, and that we shouldn’t just go through the motions…

We all know that hindsight is 20/20, and time is our greatest teacher. But if we wait for time to teach us how to live our lives, we’ll have missed the opportunity to take advantage of these lessons.

We need to have confidence in our abilities, and faith in the notion that taking immediate action will result in much greater gains than if we were to wait until “the time is right.”

Matt also provided two key reminders for anyone who is struggling to take the initiative for a new and challenging opportunity.

1. Stop Comparing Yourself to Everyone Else

If you constantly compare your accomplishments to others, you’ll always find a way to be disappointed. This disappointment can lead to self-doubt and feelings of unpreparedness.

As I mentioned before, I wasted an enormous amount of my twenties thinking that everyone else around me somehow had it all together while I was barely staying afloat.

I kept wondering when I would finally have the confidence and abilities needed to move forward in life—as if these things would just come to me one day.

I now realize that confidence and ability comes from active practice, and the reason many others around me may have been more successful was because they didn’t waste time hoping for something to come to them; they put in the effort to make it happen.

2. Identify and Challenge the Excuses That Hold You Back

“I don’t have enough money.”

“I don’t have a well-paying job.”

“I don’t know what I want out of life.”

“I’m not quite ready yet.”

Since there are innumerable ways things could go wrong when stepping out of our comfort zones, it’s possible to create an inexhaustible list of excuses to stay stuck, and seemingly safe.

But we must realize that most, if not all, of the excuses we make are temporary roadblocks, not concrete walls. Even if it takes a little extra effort, there are ways around them.

If you like what you’ve read so far, click here for the full article! He goes into great detail about his own personal learning experience and for situational examples of how to implement his two tips in everyday life.

– Virginia Johnson