Being ‘fully’ ready is an illusion

If you’re waiting to be ready to pursue something, you’ll end up waiting forever.

Perhaps you have started taking actions but things started getting messy and you started feeling overwhelmed.

And that took you back to square zero.

Then that made you think perhaps you weren’t ready in the first place.

Now, you start waiting to be ready. You wait for the perfect time, perfect tools, perfect ideas, etc. to pop up. But that just leads to the illusion of perfection and you end up procrastinating.

It’s a trap

I have fallen in this trap of getting ‘fully ready’ before.

Waited years to start filming myself and ambiences, not realizing taking imperfect actions would have contributed far more to my learning rather than watching perfect tutorials and not doing anything - because I didn’t feel ready.

And it’s a cycle - you watch a tutorial, feel motivated to take action, you start then realize you aren’t good yet because the tutorial was created by a pro; the urge to learn more continues.

Then you end up just learning and having little to no time to implement the learnings.

And you put things away to do later because you don’t feel fully ready, you don’t feel you’re good enough.

Why would you be good at something if you haven’t even taken the first step towards actually doing the thing instead of just watching a tutorial?

Here, I am literally describing myself when I fall in the trap of continues learning rather than doing. And I am sure, I am not the only one who feels this way!

But the good thing is, I am getting better at not falling in this trap as much anymore and so can you.

The magic is in taking the small actions

Instead of just sitting around and feeling productive by just watching tutorials, start taking small actions.

Acknowledge it is not going to be perfect but it doesn’t have to be. If it were perfect then there wouldn’t be room for improvement, right?

Taking imperfect actions consistently can compound pretty fast and when you combine that with the intention of getting 1% better per task, with time, you transform.

It is going to take a bit to get used to with it specially when you’re so acquainted with procrastinating due to the idea of needing to be ready. But with enough practice and persistent efforts, you will eventually get there.

"Comparison is the thief of joy" - T. Roosevelt

It’s also very crucial to not compare yourself with others who are on a similar journey.

The comparison will take place at subconscious level, it’s inevitable unless you have done some work on yourself to be wary of that.

Otherwise, you will just drift away on your comparison thoughts like a floating leaf on a river. Your task is to be aware of it and catch yourself.

If you really want to compare then compare your yesterday’s work to today’s work, compare your past version to your present one.

You can do that by journaling and doing some self-reflecting activities when you’re by yourself.

What can you do to get out of this trap?

One very important thing I have noticed with myself is..

You gotta develop a mindset in such a way that after making a plan (or watching a tutorial), you don’t let too much time pass until you take the action no matter how small the action is.

The only way you get a momentum is by immediately taking action once your planning is complete. Otherwise you will end up waiting and looking for the ways to make the plan perfect.

Reduce the time (desperately and mercilessly as much as you can) between planning and action taking once you have a plan. This is the only advice I would give if you’re starting to be aware of procrastinating because you didn’t feel ready. Ignore all the motivations and discipline mindsets, yadayadayda, if you are at this stage.

Just try this one thing for few weeks and see how it works out for you. Then you can start learning about other techniques and implementing them to stay on track.

Always remember, the more you start learning about more productive techniques without being able to implement any or majority of them, the more you will start feeling overwhelmed and putting things off.

Therefore, just start with this one technique for now.

TL;DR (For those who don’t know, it stands for - Too Long; Didn't Read) aka summary:

• If you wait to do something just because you don’t feel ready, you will end up waiting forever.

• Watching tutorials to learn can be beneficial but only to some extent and they can very well keep you from actually doing the thing.

• 'Productive procrastination' can creep in subtly and suck you into the abyss of illusion; illusion of 'being productive’ when you are binging tutorials.

• Start prioritizing & taking imperfect small actions and strive to improve 1% every time.

• Be wary of who you are comparing yourself to. Is it your yesterday’s version? Or is it someone who’s been in the same journey for 20 years and you’re just starting out? Or is it someone who hasn’t even started yet?

• Reduce the time (desperately and mercilessly as much as you can) between planning and action taking once you have a plan.

• The more you learn about more productive techniques without being able to implement majority of them, the more you will start feeling overwhelmed and putting things off.

That’s it for this week folks.

Hope you got a little different perspective on how you can still not be ready and take action anyway.

I have been trying to keep my writings as brief and as to the point as possible. Hopefully you’re enjoying and getting a perspective from them.

If you’re on Instagram, here’s a short reel on this very issue. You’re more than welcome to connect with me over Instagram as well. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFX9XzTOM7F/

Till my next post, stay groovy and go do that thing ALREADY before you feel ready!