You spend yet another day at the office and it makes you want to curl up and cry, but even then, you feel like you’re not ready to switch.
You have been dreaming of starting your own business. Your brain is flowing with ideas, but you feel like you’re not ready yet!
I think I am not ready for marriage! Sitting with the wedding planner and working out the details, my mind wanders and interrogates my decision, ‘Am I ready for marriage? Should I go ahead?’ I feel anxious, indecisive, all the while keeping my face looking delighted. I like my fiance, still there is a combination of excitement, nervousness and helplessness. I feel as if I’m strapped onto a roller coaster and I don’t know what awaits at the end.
What if things don’t work out as expected? What if… there seem to be endless, pointless ‘Ifs’ standing in my way.
In our lives, we come across situations where we feel that we’re not ready to take the plunge. Be it career, family, relationship, goals, or dreams. We feel we’re not ready for marriage, having a baby, switching jobs, starting a new career, taking up challenging goals, following our dreams, changing city or moving to a new country.
No we’re never ready!
We can’t be! Because ‘new’ is unknown. Anything new brings in uncertainty. It’s a change from the old. It scares us to start anything new; even when the present looks bleak, change threatens us.
Opening a new chapter in life is never easy. Change introduces new dynamics and we’re apprehensive of it; we don’t know how it will turn out.
Our mind is designed for safety; that’s the survival instinct of the primitive brain. It prefers the known over the unknown. When things aren’t clear, it holds you back. It pulls you in, as if you are venturing out into a dark forest. It alarms you to stay in the safe zone of known.
That’s how a lot of people stay in bad jobs, toxic relationships; just to stay in the safe net of the known. It looks comfortable and clear. Leaving this place for the unknown frightens us.
After all, known is visible, while unknown looks unclear. How good or bad it could turn out, we don’t know. We hold ourselves from starting something new, thinking what if it fails. Failure is the biggest fear, so we keep delaying to ensure to avoid failure and we end up never moving.
So, should we stick to what we know?
No! In spite of the fact, there is no certainty of anything. Growth needs newness and you can’t be ready for it because it’s growth. It’s going to be new. Growth requires you to feel unprepared and uncertain. When you’re too comfortable, then you are in a normal zone, who you already are.
To grow, you need to come out of your normal zone and explore who you can be, otherwise it stagnates you.
We can never be sure of anything, that’s how it is. No matter how much our mind craves for a safety net and comes up with ideas why to stick to what we have, growth needs change.
Growth comes as a by-product of leaving your known and doing what you don’t know. Imagine if our ancestors had stayed in their shelter; we would still have been hunting for food with bows and arrows.
We need to embrace change and shed away the security blanket our brains throws at us. Start before it scares you out; move forward. Life is about trying, exploring, learning, falling, and rising.
Waiting to feel ready is actually looking for reasons to delay your move, and unless you step up you won’t even know what lies beyond.
In other words, the key to success is to start before you're ready.
How many times have you felt that you aren't ready? Share your experience in the comment section to tell us how you have faced the situation and come out as a winner.
Dive in, it will teach you how to swim...