when is a good time to start?
I come across this question a lot with clients, colleagues or friends who seem eager to try something new or launch a passion project. They talk about it amongst loved ones, they think about it constantly when work isn’t going so well or when they see someone else doing it.
And, then they push that thought to the side to get back to whatever it is they’re doing at the time. Only to return to the thought soon after and repeat the same pattern because one of many excuses pop up:
When I have more time
When I have saved XYZ
When I have finished my certification
When I have more experience
I’m too busy
I don’t have enough time
I’m not ready
I don’t have this, that or the other
It’s not perfect yet
I’m exhausted
What will people think of me (ooh, that’s a goody)
Sound familiar? Excuses feel good, don’t they? They’re so “safe”. Nothing could possibly go wrong when we stay pigeon holed in our excuses.
I once hired a business coach who shared two pieces of mindset gold with me as I relied upon many excuses when I was starting a past business. My go-to’s were “I’m not ready” or “I’ll start when I have saved XYZ and done this, that and the other”, to which my coach replied, “the best pieces of advice I can give you is to start before you’re ready, and done is better than perfect”. Mind blown. Hello, new world.
Recently I was feeding my brain with some YouTube wisdom as an ad popped up that prompted this blog post. It was such a solid piece of advice that it was worth sharing with you - in case you’re stuck in excuse town, population you - the question was “when is a good time to start?”, the nugget of wisdom gold answer was, “imagine yourself a year from now where nothing has changed, don’t you wish you would have started?”.
I shared this story recently about how stateofpause was created. I pushed this project aside for a few months full of excuses until COVID-19 hit when I was paused from my full-time work. I selfishly and shamelessly saw it as a blessing, a silver lining, and a reflected on my excuses (this particular scenario I used “I don’t have enough time” and “I’m too exhausted”).
Were the excuses really worth all that wasted energy?
My paused time away from work went for about a month, I had started working on this platform, fear would creep in occasionally that resulted in the delay of completion. It wasn’t until I was due to return to work temporarily that gave me the ultimate push to launch, and within a day I finished designing this website, polished off the copy and launched the platform before it (or I) was truly ready.
What followed was not only complete creative satisfaction and release, but an overwhelming positive response from peers, colleagues and loved ones.
So, yeah, I’d say now is a good time to start. Even if you just start by tipping your toe in. It’s a start.
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Image credit: Pinterest
