Episode 40: "You Don't Have to Feel Ready."

You Don’t Have to Feel ReadyHow often do we wait to feel ready before we do something?We tell ourselves we’ll start when we feel more confident. We’ll take the chance when we’re less afraid. We’ll chase the goal when life settles down. We’ll put ourselves out there when we finally feel like we belong.But what if that feeling never comes?In this episode of Still Becoming, I want to talk about something I’ve been learning in my own life: you don’t have to feel ready to move forward.Last week, I talked about how you don’t have to know how this ends. You don’t need to know whether the thing you’re chasing is going to work out exactly the way you hope. You don’t need a guarantee before deciding something is worth pursuing.But there’s another part of that.You don’t have to feel ready either.Sometimes we think confidence has to come first. We believe we need to feel strong, motivated, fearless, and certain before taking that first step.I’m starting to believe we have it backward.Maybe confidence isn’t what gets us started.Maybe confidence is something we build because we started.I’ve been reminded of this through running. There are days when everything feels right—my body feels good, my mind is calm, and I’m ready to work. Then there are days when I’m standing there questioning everything.On those days, I’m learning that I don’t have to win the argument happening inside my head before I begin.I don’t have to convince myself I’m going to have an amazing workout.Sometimes I just need to go.Recently, during a difficult workout, I found myself getting caught up in what I thought I should be capable of doing. Eventually I stopped fighting for a particular result and told myself something much simpler:Just run strong. Whatever strong looks like today, let it be that.And I think that applies to so much more than running.Maybe you’re waiting to start a business, change careers, write something, start exercising, have a difficult conversation, create something of your own, or try again after failing.You don’t have to become some perfectly confident version of yourself before you begin.Becoming happens while you’re doing it.That’s the whole idea behind Still Becoming.Courage doesn’t always look dramatic. Sometimes courage is simply sending the email. Showing someone your work. Walking into a room where you’re uncomfortable. Getting back out there after something hurt. Or quietly deciding, “I’m going to try.”You don’t have to promise yourself that you’ll succeed.You don’t have to know how this ends.You don’t have to know whether it works.You don’t even have to feel ready.You just have to be willing to find out.And maybe somewhere along the way, you’ll look back and realize something:You became ready because you started.