Readiness is a moving target

Last week I went for a needed wine(s) with a friend. She was ranting about her job and I expressed how they should transition to being a freelancer.

“But don’t you say how hard it is”

“But it probably won’t work”

“But I need to do x, y, and z before I start that”

“But I don’t think I’m ready for that yet”

“BUT” everything.

The latter point in particular diverted our whole conversation to what does it mean to be ready for anything?

Readiness is a moving target. You’ll never be ready, as your definition will always move as you evolve.

I waited until I’d ran a half marathon to enter my first marathon. Rather than it giving me confidence, I finished that race thinking it would be impossible to run double that. Left it another 18 months before my first marathon. And now I’ve done 5.

I waited until I’d completed multiple courses and test portfolio projects before launching my own freelance business. My first designs were still awful in hindsight. I’m 1000x better than that now, but I’d never have got to this point if I hadn’t started).

I waited until I’d published 50 blog articles before I had the confidence to start writing on Substack. And could be having a lot more than my average 5 views if I’d just started posting a year ago.

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I get it. The “buts” used to take over my brain. But FINALLY I feel as though I am done with waiting. Because waiting has only ever pushed me further away from my goal.

Far too late in life, I’ve realised that waiting is the easy way out.

Telling yourself you need more experience, more confidence, more knowledge, is simply a way to hide the fact that change is scary. It’s a justification for feeling scared of being bad at it. And when I finally did start freelancing, I WAS bad at it. My early designs are firmly deleted from my portfolio and make me wince a bit. But without those first attempts, I don’t have built the foundation for my freelance business today. The work I’m proud of wouldn’t exist without the work that made me cringe. But I could be even better if I’d spent all that ‘preparation’ time just doing the thing.

Jaclyn Mullen sums it up by saying “It pains me to think about where I would be today had I waited”. The longer you wait, the more excuses you create and the less time you have to learn from doing the thing.

So I’m taking this as my opportunity to give you 7 reasons why now is the perfect time to start. No buts allowed.

1. You need something to refine.

You can theorise all you like about your ideal pricing tier, your perfect target market, your ideal workflow, but until you try, you’re guessing. Those early jobs give you invaluable insight into what clients respond to, how you deliver, how you can be even better. It’s so much easier to set a realistic future goal when you already have your feet on the ground, so starting reduces the distance between your ideal point and your actual point.

2. Running a business is different to textbook learning.

At school, when you’re learning something new you were basically learning to be able to repeat back the fact. You didn’t have to really understand photosynthesis to be able to recite its definition in a science paper.

But in real life, if you don’t know the why behind something, or truly understand it, you simply don’t have knowledge on that topic. You can spend months doing courses, reading books, watching YouTube tutorials, but without actually trying it out for yourself, you’re only learning surface level facts.

Learning by doing helps you to transform passive knowledge into real-world competence, and research shows us that active engagement leads to deeper understanding. So despite what that course expert is trying to sell you, real learning really does happen on the job.

3. You’ll know what you actually like doing.

When I finally started, I offered both branding and website design. On paper, it made sense as a lot of the inspirational people and agencies in the industry I’d researched offered both and they naturally went hand in hand. So I spent months getting better at Adobe Illustrator and fully learning everything about visual identity. It wasn’t until I actually began taking on projects that I realised how much I disliked the branding process. Meanwhile, the strategy and website parts lit me up. That is something I only could’ve realised through action. And I’d love you to not waste the same about of months I did on ‘learning’ something I didn’t want to do.

4. You’re convincing yourself it’s impossible.

There’s also a psychological cost to waiting. When you delay taking action, you’re strengthening the belief that you can’t do it, and the mind confused inaction for incapacity. Research into procrastination shows “the longer something sits un-started, the more cognitive load, anxiety, and avoidance it creates”. By putting off doing the thing, you’re literally convincing yourself it’s impossible.

5. The world moves faster than you think

Especially in today’s world, tools, platforms, trends shift in months, or even weeks. If you have a business idea, if you want to learn a new skill, if you’ve been waiting for the “right” moment, chances are you’ll miss it.

Markets shift, client expectations change, technology advances. Waiting six months might mean you miss a context, a gap, a window where you could have shown up.

6. You’ll get comfortable being uncomfortable.

People often say how starting is the hard part. I don’t agree with this, and I’m not going to encourage you to start by lying about it being easy. But, it does throw you into an irreplaceable mindset of iteration and knowing you have to keep being better. When you start, you know things aren’t going to be perfect. You can focus on developing your processes, refining your products or services. Nothing will feel completely perfect or smooth but that helps you to understand that in business that is normal. And as your business grows and develops, you’ll continue to challenge yourself to be better rather than settling for what feels comfortable.

6. You build your network sooner

When you begin you start meeting people: clients, collaborators, referral partners. 75% of my client base is referrals or returning clients, and that all began spiralling from the very first few people I worked with. Two weeks ago, I landed my biggest project to date. With a client who was introduced to me from just the third person I ever worked with. Had I delayed starting and not made that connection, I wouldn’t have been celebrating at the weekend. Research also confirms how entrepreneurs’ networks are tied to their success, through access to resources, feedback, and connections. If there’s one reason to start, then starting your network should be it.

7. Time is passing regardless

In a years time, you can either have a year of experience, or a year of excuses. The same amount of time passes whether you do the thing or not. But by starting now. You’re giving your future self a running start. You can begin to accumulate momentum, experience, network, confidence, learnings. And in a years time, you can be asking yourself about the next step, with a full 12 months of learnings and trying behind you. Or you can still be asking the same question about how to start. Your future self will thank you for the first step you tool.

Time is passing whether you’re doing the thing or not

Have I convinced you yet?

When I think back to the months I spent planning instead of starting, I don’t feel proud of the preparation. But I do feel grateful for the day I finally just went for it. Yes that starting point wasn’t perfect, but the perfecting time to start doesn’t exist.

If I hadn’t started when I did, I wouldn’t have the business I have now. I wouldn’t have the clients, the knowledge, or the direction. I’d still be in the loop of thinking about it and perfecting a plan that was never going to be tested in the real world. Because starting changes everything. It transforms theory into practice and gives your strategy something to work with.

So if you’re standing where I was, I hope this can act as the nudge I very much needed. And serves as your reminder that you don’t need to be perfect. You just need a starting point.

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