It was a year of jumping in before I was ready.
The first year of my business, I went to a networking event before I had business cards.
On the way out the door to the event, I actually whipped together some makeshift cards on my printer, simply because I wanted to have some way for people to contact me.
No, you’re right, they were not particularly impressive.
But, honestly, how often have you been blown away by a business card?
How many times have you caught yourself thinking: gosh, you know the product didn’t sound interesting at all, and he was dull as dirt, but that card, well, that card changes everything?!?!?
Right, me neither.
I decided that, more important than me flashing a fabulous card was me actually starting to get known in the community.
I started writing a blog when the only thing that I knew was that I had something to say.
I had a client who would not listen to me. Can you imagine?
I got off Skype after a session with her and was filled with the need to tell someone all the things she would simply not take in from me.
I starting writing frantically and didn’t stop. I wrote like a crazy person for days. I scribbled straight through meals. I got annoyed when people came to the door. I barked at my husband when he asked how it was going.
I actually finished penning it on an air sick bag because the plane was landing, they had made me turn off my Ipad, and I had no other available paper.
I’m not even making that up.
And, I still think it’s a great post.
But, I hadn’t yet worked out a great website concept or even what tone or personality I would use in my writing.
Even better, I posted it at the elegant and timeless wendywhitesblog.blogspot.com.
Yes, I do know that is a terrible name for a website.
But, the point wasn’t the blog name, it was what I was writing. The important stuff wasn’t the marketing and packaging, it was the content. And, I knew that, as I wrote, a style and a brand would emerge.
More importantly, I was not going to wait until I had that all figured out.
Because the thought of not writing anything till I had found the perfect tone and the ideal branding was horrifying.
I knew that the only way I would find the correct approach to writing and branding would be to actually dive right in and try things to see what worked.
Refusing to write anything until I had entirely worked it all out in my head would just be inaction in disguise.
A crafty, sneaky disguise that convinces you that you are being all analytical and smart.
But the reality is: you are just stuck.
See, all that planning and waiting for it to be ready can be a way of never actually starting anything.
When you are starting out a new venture, whether it’s creating a business or launching a new scheme to finally get your garage organized, there are a million details that you would like to have figured out beforehand.
You want to think it all out, every single eventuality, and have everything perfectly in place before you start.
But, the problem is that you can analyze for so long, you become paralyzed by it.
Yes, I said it, analysis paralysis. Strategizing, thinking, planning, but never actually doing.
And, the truth is, you can’t prepare for everything.
You won’t even know what everything is until you start taking action.
You can strategize, plan, and think your way through it all. And you will be wrong.
You have no idea what you are going to run into, how others will react, and how you will respond until you are actually in it, doing the work.
You only learn by taking action. Taking action will teach you what will work and, just as importantly, what will not.
Inaction, on the other hand, teaches you nothing. Except that inaction sucks.
You simply cannot wait until you’re completely ready. Because you never will be.
So, let’s talk about you. You have something you want to do. Something you need to do.
And you’re working on it, I know you are.
You’re thinking about it, pondering it, strategizing exactly how this is going to play out.
You’re planning, learning more, crafting your master plan to reorganize the universe.
And you’re finally going to be ready to spring it on us all when you are eighty.
You have to stop thinking about it and actually do it.
Stop saying “no, not yet.”
Start saying “yes, today, in fact.”
I know you’re not ready. Really, I do.
Do it anyway. You have no idea how great you’re going to be.
What are you plotting and pondering, studying and analyzing? Is this the year you’re actually going to do it? I can help. Come find out how.
