People tend to postpone things until they find the perfect time for it. They want to travel, but they say, “maybe next summer or when I get a promotion.” Another give an excuse like “I want to start my own podcast, but I don’t have the right equipment.” “I want to be able to speak in front of a large audience, but I’m not yet confident. Maybe when I finish taking that ‘speaking with confidence’ course.”
Some of our reasons sound perfectly sensible. You need better equipment before starting the podcast. Gaining more confidence before speaking publicly is very important. You need more money before travelling. None of these things are necessarily unreasonable. However, these things that we see as preparation before taking the leap could also be helping us avoid the discomfort of beginning. So, what looks like preparation can gradually become a form of procrastination.
We think we are preparing ourselves for the right moment, but sometimes preparation is how we protect ourselves from the possibility of failure. It makes you believe that since you are still preparing, you have not failed. Subsequently, this might hold you back from discovering your abilities and the other areas you need to work on. It could also prevent you from confronting the uncertainty that comes from taking that risk.
Sometimes, it is not the decision itself that scares us. It could be what the decision might reveal to us. What if you start and discover that you are not as good as you imagined? Perhaps, what if people laugh at you? What if you spend the money and regret it? What if you try and fail after telling everyone about your plans?
Eventually, postponement has its own consequences. You begin to look at the things you once wanted and wonder how much further you might have gone if you had started earlier. The painful part is that there is often no dramatic moment when you realize this. It happens quietly, one postponed decision after another.
The problem with constantly telling yourself “later” is that later can gradually become a habit. You become accustomed to living in preparation for a life you have actually not begun. The thing you once hoped to do remains permanently somewhere in the future, while the present keeps moving.
Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with preparation. The question to ask is what the preparation is doing to you. Is it giving you what you genuinely need, or is it giving you another reason to remain where you are?
The goal might not be to stop preparing or to throw caution to the wind. Some things genuinely require time, money, skill and planning. The harder task is learning to recognize when preparation is helping you move forward and when it is only making you feel safer about not beginning. You don’t have to become completely ready. Try and sit with yourself and be honest about what is really preventing you from starting.
