Start Before You’re Ready: 3 Insights for Stepping Into What Excites and Terrifies You

 

Can you think of the last time you did something that terrified and excited you at the same time?

If you’re like me, you can probably also think of a few times an opportunity like that revealed itself — and you let it pass by. We tell ourselves we’re not ready. We succumb to the doubt or the fear. And later, we feel the particular ache of recognizing we were ready for more and didn’t allow ourselves to step into it.

This week’s video is about what helps us step forward instead of shrinking back. I share three insights that have made the difference for me, and I imagine at least one of them will land for you too.

The first is about the discomfort of growth — and why feeling unready isn’t the warning sign we tend to think it is. The second is about a trap I’ve fallen into more than once: the belief that we need one more course, one more credential, one more bit of preparation before we’re allowed to begin. (Spoiler: there’s something a workshop can never give you that taking action will.) And the third is about what we can lean on in those moments when confidence simply hasn’t arrived yet.

We don’t grow by waiting until we feel ready. We grow by stepping into the thing that’s calling us — before we’re as prepared as we’d like to be — and discovering that we had what it took all along.

 

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If this resonates and you’d like more tools for leading from the inside out, you’ll find them inside The Real Leader Academy, including the Just In Time Coaching Library — a growing collection of tips and approaches for the real challenges leaders face.