I remember standing on the high dive board at our local pool when I was a little kid.  It wasn’t too high, maybe 15 or 20 feet, but when you are young and afraid of heights, it was high enough, and scary enough.  I had already called out to my mom to watch me jump off (what’s the point of doing this without an audience), but now was the moment of truth.  It was time to run down the board and fling myself off.  I definitely wasn’t ready.  But after a few moments of fidgeting, I would stop thinking about my fear for a split-second, and hurl myself into the air.

And no matter how many times I jumped off, I was never quite ready.  I just did it. 

In the same vein, I’ve talked with a number of my friends who have children, and I’ve asked them how they knew they were ready.  They just laughed at me.  “You’re never ready, you just do it and hope for the best” is a common response.  Tim Ferriss talks about the same process in his book The Four-Hour Workweek.

I’ll often meet with individuals who are interested in coaching with me, who want to experience the benefits that coaching can bring.   They want to get a handle on their life, expand their business, bring their time use in line with their priorities, etc.  Some of them, however, back off at the last moment and say something to the effect of, “This is great, but I just want to get myself ready.  I want to make sure I have the time, money, focus, energy, etc.  and then I'll be get started.”

They don’t realize that it’s a circular trap.  Waiting for the perfect conditions before embarking on something new leads to perpetual waiting – especially where personal growth is concerned.  For example, if you are waiting until you have enough time in your schedule to work on the fact that you don’t seem to have enough time in your schedule…. well, you get the point.

You probably have something in your life that you want to do, something that really excites you; but you have been waiting until you are totally ready to go after it.  You might be waiting until you have enough education, experience, or resources; maybe you are waiting until you have complete assurance that you will succeed.  Whatever this set of perfect circumstances is, realize that if you keep waiting, you are going to keep waiting.

You aren’t ever going to be perfectly ready.  That’s OK, because you don’t have to be.  Just like a little kid standing on the diving board, the trick is to just run and hurl yourself off.  You’ll find that just starting is the biggest key to success. 

What project, activity, task, dream have you been waiting to be ready for?