If you’re like anyone I know, you have something you want to do. You’ve been wanting it for a while, but you haven’t done it yet. Writing a book, starting an exercise routine, founding a business, making a difficult call. Whatever it is, it’s still waiting on the launchpad.
There are a ton of legitimate reasons you haven’t started. “I’m not good enough yet.” “I have to learn the field.” “I need to get organized first.” “I just need to read this one more book.” “I need to be financially stable first.” “I have to get certified.” The list goes on.
I have a question for you: Do you really want to do the thing? Really? Seriously?
Because if you do, do it. Right now. Pull out a pen, put on some running shoes, start your website, pick up the phone. Skip the preparation, skip the planning, stop trying to line up your ducks and herd your cats. Take the leap, and do the thing. (If you need to do planning, do as much as you can fit on one notecard in 5 minutes.)
I’d been planning a major move for the past few months to skip the coming Midwestern winter. I was talking with a good friend recently about it, explaining how I wasn’t moving until I had everything lined up. Once I finished, she said something insightful: “You’re moving across the country; your ducks aren’t ever going to be in a row. By the time they are, winter will have come. You just have to take the leap and find your wings on the way down.”
When I stopped and thought about it, it was frightening. She was right: I could’ve waited straight through to May, always saying “just until x”. I set a date to move right then and there, come hell or high water.
“But there are so many problems that you haven’t planned for yet! So many things you don’t know! So much preparation you still should do!”
True. But that’s life. There are always a thousand problems you, me, and everyone else haven’t planned for at any given time; a thousand facts we don’t yet know; a thousand methods we haven’t learned and implemented. There always will be. If we keep waiting to act until we know everything, we’ll be waiting at least until we discover everything.
If you really want to do the thing, you just have to do it. You have to realize that your “legitimate” excuses actually aren’t (because there are “legitimate” excuses for almost everything – and always will be). Then you have to commit to jumping, and take the leap. Do the thing.
You’ll find your wings on the way down. I jumped out of college, and things fell into place. I decided to jump across the country, and things have fallen into place (I leave for my newly rented place Friday). The Praxis family is full of people who jumped and learned to fly on the way down. That’s what we teach and what we do. You have to put in the work, but things tend to work out as long as you do.
Stop waiting for security. It doesn’t exist – and the closest thing to it is knowing that you can learn to fly in any situation when you need to.
Do the thing.
