Start Before You're Ready

Because you can't think your way to the life you want

Listen here.

I scrolled past it at first. Then I went back.

Melissa Omand (MA, CHPC). had left a comment on one of my posts:

I stared at it for a while. Someone read what I wrote and decided to start sharing her own voice with the world. The very next day, she published her first post.

I felt something I didn’t expect. Not pride, exactly. More like purpose. Like maybe this thing I’ve been doing actually mattered. Like I was living out exactly what I was put on the earth to do.

Two and a half years ago, that moment would have seemed impossible.

July 2023. I’d been thinking about starting a blog for months. Maybe years. I had ideas I wanted to share. Leadership. Personal growth. The kind of things I’d been writing for my team at work.

But sharing it publicly? That was different.

When I finally wrote my first post, Susanna asked if she could share it on social media.

“Absolutely not,” I said. “I don’t know what people will think.”

So I sent it to five people. Family and close friends. People who I knew would be nice.

I was terrified of being judged. Terrified of putting myself out there and hearing nothing back. Terrified that the ideas in my head wouldn’t translate to words on a page.

Here’s what I didn’t know then: you can’t think your way past fear. You can only act your way through it.

Before I published that first post, Taylor (my coach) helped me set some ground rules. Not rules for success. Rules for starting.

Here’s what we came up with together:

• I will write 3-4 paragraphs and land one main point

• I will write 4 weekly blogs in advance

• I will be authentic in my writing style

• I will express empathy toward others and their experiences

• I will publish my first blog before I make any changes to my standards

That last one was the key. I had to publish before I let myself second-guess everything.

So I did it. I finally hit publish.

I worried about which posts would truly resonate. I over-edited instead of just sharing my best and shipping it. Some weeks, I’d get comments. Other weeks, nothing. Sometimes a text message would show up days later from someone who needed to hear exactly what I’d written.

There’s no book that could have taught me what 120 weeks of showing up taught me. No amount of thinking would have prepared me for the feedback, dealing with the silence, and the realization that my voice actually mattered.

Consistency compounds. But only if you start.

Last week, I was walking a new friend, Christa, through her Purpose Factor assessment. We were talking about next steps she wanted to take in her purpose journey, and she mentioned a quote from Rumi, the 13th-century Persian poet:

“As you start to walk out on the way, the way appears.”

That’s been my experience anyway. The path didn’t reveal itself while I was sitting on the couch, overthinking. It showed up when I got up and started walking.

Here’s what I know: you were born on purpose and for a great purpose. But you won’t discover it sitting still. There’s something inside you that wants to come out. And you’ve probably been talking yourself out of it for years.

I get it. I’m guilty too.

But here’s the thing: you will never think your way to the life you want.

What is your purpose? Maybe it’s:

• Writing the book that shares your story with people who will benefit from it

• Starting the nonprofit that helps the person you used to be

• Launching the business that solves a problem only you can see

• Becoming the mentor you wish you’d had when you most needed one

Take one step. Then another. The path starts to appear.

Melissa, I’m so thankful that I played a small role in your decision to hit publish. I have no doubt the way will continue to reveal itself to you.

What’s the one thing you’ve been sitting on?

See you next Sunday.

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