Start Where You Are

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You know what the best part about being a kid is? Fearlessness.

When my daughter was learning to walk, she would fall. All. The. Time. She'd take a few steps, lose her balance, fall face first, and of course cry her eyes out. Then she'd get up and try it again. When she got bold enough to try to run, it was like she was discovering our house for the first time. Her feet would go too fast for her little mind to keep up and she'd inevitably run into a wall or a table and fall flat on her butt. You would think that it would've taught her to slow it down, pay more attention. Nope. She'd get up and go full speed, again and again.

As adults, we are very risk averse. If we were in my daughter's shoes, we'd only have to fall that one time. Our brains register pain and suffering as giant STOP signs and we do not proceed, much less get up and try again. As we grow up, we lose that fearlessness and replace it with extreme caution, bordering on perfectionism. We don't want to do anything that we aren't absolutely sure we will be successful at, and since none of us are born knowing how to do everything, that often leads to us staying in our comfort zone.

What's wrong with being comfortable? Literally everything. Growth can not happen in this zone. It's retirement territory, the place where you go when you're done living and you just want to rest. Well, I don't know about y'all, but that time of my life is so far in my future that it's not even something I think about. (In fact, I doubt I'll ever fully retire because I believe there's just too much to do in life to ever be comfortable, but I'm weird like that.)

If you are ready to retire, then by all means, stay in your comfort zone. But if there are still things you want to accomplish, places you want to visit, careers you want to try out, you need to run far, far away from this zone, ASAP. Not ready? You're not alone. None of us are ever really ready for things we have never tried before. Scared? Embrace it. That feeling is really excitement coupled with nervousness because you care. You want to be perfect at whatever you do, and while that's ambitious, believing it can happen from day one is just silly.

No matter what you're goal is, if it's something you've never done before, that means you'll be a beginner. Understand that every professional was once an amateur, and the only difference between a beginner and a professional is experience. The only way to get that experience is to start, wherever you are. Keep putting one foot in front of the other, and if you happen to miss a step and fall face first, get back up and try it again.


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