Another day, another week, another year, another lifetime. I'm forever waiting for some perfect time to start something that scares or excites me - why?
It's as if I have to get all my ducks in a row before I can undertake a challenge. Whoever came up with that phrase has presumably never tried to line up waterfowl of any kind, or maybe that's the point in that it's basically impossible short of employing brute force.
When I consider the biggest, bravest things I have done so far in my life, yes they have all taken planning, but none of them came from a place of true, complete readiness. Some were not much better than semi-fledged whims carried along on the winds of chance. Some, such as marriage, were obviously more than that! But by no means a checklist, five year plan approved scenario. More a let's-hold-hands-through-this-tornado scenario, at times!
So the question remains, what is the sign I've been looking for to tell me that the time is right to embark on each new challenge? What it boils down to when I interrogate it is, how afraid am I? Because fear is the driving factor in my NOT taking the risks I need to in order to develop and grow.
Fear of failure, fear of being insufficient, fear of loss - all of these rear their heads when I consider risk-taking. Even risks which would have great, beautiful, creative outcomes look ugly and scary in the face of fear. It's only too easy for me to fall back on the usual excuses of 'when I have time', 'when I have money'; 'when, when, when'.
When? I mean really, what are you waiting for? Because if it's the absence of fear, if it's the perfect scenario, the likelihood is that the time will never come. I am all for reasoned, carefully considered decisions, but in all truth I am far too cautious as a person and I suspect I'm not the only one.
Stepping into new things with guts, faith and determination is the best we can do when the perfect scenario doesn't or will not present itself. Leaving behind fear might not be possible, but overcoming it one bit at a time is possible. And maybe, just maybe, this is the sign you've been looking for.