All too often we can get stuck in analysis paralysis, that is to say that we spend so much time thinking about all the possible issues that might arise from a given action, that we get crippled trying to prepare for and solve imagined issues years before they become an problem. We try to cross the proverbial bridge well before we arrive at the river. The longer we wait, to start doing ‘the perfect work’ that the world is waiting for, the more we squander the opportunity to do all ‘the good work’ the world needs. Perfect can be the enemy of good. This is not to say that we couldn’t plan ahead. After all, you could quite easily make the argument that we, as a species, are in our current rabbit hole due to a lack of planning and foresight.
Rather, this is to say that if you are looking for somewhere to start, look right in front of you. Pick the smallest problem you can solve and go do it. Don’t talk about how to do it, and wait for someone to come along either to solve it or to give you permission to do so yourself. That someone isn’t coming, because that someone is you. Give yourself permission, pick yourself and go solve it.
It is going to be scary, you are going to be uncomfortable. You will have to take risks and learn how to fail forward. Good. Make mistakes. Fail. The two make up the only true renewable resources that you have available. Understand that they do not exist to embarrass, humiliate or reveal you for the fraud that you feel inside.
No, Mistakes and failures exist to teach, to guide and to strengthen your resolve.
It takes courage to face the fear of the unknown. It will be awkward. Guaranteed. Nobody ever achieved anything great by doing what they already knew how to do. We need people like you to have the courage to lean into the awkwardness, seek the discomfort, face the fear and dance with the amygdala as Seth Godin would say. Discomfort, awkward feelings and fear are likewise not signs that we are doing something wrong, something unaligned. They are the opposite, affirmations that you are stepping into the void and doing something right. The crazy thing about all of this is that the moment you step into the fear, is the moment it dissipates, and the universe conspires in your favour.
All you have to do is step up, embrace the awkward, and dive on in.
Stay Fun Farms 