Norm · 2019-08-03
I don’t remember when I first heard the saying, “Do it before you’re ready”, but I do know that it wasn’t really that long ago when I was able to actually really hear it, and to grok the meaning and reasoning contained within this small collection of words. You might find yourself nodding along as you read, noticing how that phrase echoes in your own quiet moments. Perhaps you’ve waited for a sign, wondering when exactly you’ll feel prepared enough to begin. As you let those words settle, you might start to realize how often we pause before leaping.
Often in life I have been frozen into inaction because I wasn’t ready to tackle something. I didn’t know enough about the subject, I didn’t have the right space to do it the way I thought it needed to be done, I didn’t have the right tools or equipment. I have piles of supplies for undertaking this project or trying that piece of creativity, that I hesitate to start to use, because while they are unused they are perfect in potential for a thousand different things, but when used, even well, all their other potential gets lost. This is something I still struggle with.
When you haven’t done something before, you really have very little idea what it will be like. You put in time and effort to prepare, you get the tools you think you need, you build the bits you think you need, etc. This can take quite a long time to learn and gather everything, especially when you’re chasing excellence in coaching or movement. While you can learn a great deal in this type of preparation, the problem is really that you can’t learn everything you need to know through it.
Some of the examples don’t quite make sense, some of the mistakes others have made don’t quite gel in your head, and that’s if you’re trying to do something others have done before. In many ways, the more you learn about something, the less prepared to do it you think you may be. You start to see the vastness of the ocean just from the shoreline. There is definitely a point where this pattern of learning stops being helpful and starts to be just procrastination covering our fear.
Think perhaps of swimming: You can learn about how to do it, you can spend time reading and you can watch others swim. You can get lost in the different ways in which to swim, the different types of pools, water, lakes, rivers, oceans out there. You can go buy a swim suit. You can feel the water in a shower, or in a bath tub.
You can dangle your feet in a pool, wade in the ocean. All of that is fine preparation, but none of it really gets you ready for that moment when you are completely immersed in the water and not in contact with anything else. Only by swimming can you really learn how to swim. Allow your breath to slow as you imagine that first full dive, the way the world shifts from visual to tactile.
As incredible as our ability to learn from other humans is, humans learn most effectively by doing. Once you have started to do something, the mistakes others have made doing the same or similar things really become tangible for you. You can see your own way to do things outside of what you’ve been able to learn from others. Doing something without the right tool can often drive a level of innovation necessary to improve the art, rather than simply doing things the way they have always been done.
You might find yourself smiling at the memory of a clumsy first attempt, realizing how much it taught you. Let that imperfection guide you deeper into the practice. There comes a time when we need to stop procrastinating, stop making excuses that you don’t have the right tools, or know all you need to know. When we stop waiting for a perfect moment that will never actually arrive.
Get the idea, and then jump in. You’ll make mistakes, but you’ll be able to learn so incredibly much faster, and that will help you get to the point of accomplishment rather than forever sitting on the sidelines thinking that you aren’t ready yet. As you watch others begin, you might feel a quiet pull to follow. Wondering whether you’ll stumble or soar, you discover that both paths lead to growth.
“Perfect is the enemy of done.” The truth is nothing can ever be perfect anyhow. We don’t want it in ourselves, we are suspicious of it in others. Flawed in some way is more real.
Be real. You’ll notice how breathing becomes easier when you release the tension of needing to be flawless. Just let yourself be exactly as you are in this moment, and allow the next step to reveal itself. In my own personal step, Yomonsni is in no way complete or ready, the outlines are there in my head but I need practice, to know more, to have a real space for it, etc.
Even this website is not close to what I’d really like it to be. However, here it is before you, and I’m learning so much more quickly now by doing rather than sitting back and just thinking and reading. Perhaps you are starting to see how your own projects wait patiently for your courage. Let’s step into the water together, flaws and all.
Coaching with Norm · Gold Coast, Australia
Coaching where this applies:
Leadership Creativity Change & Transitions Performance Intimate Discovery