Don't Miss Your Shot
To be honest, it was hard for me to find the right words to describe how I felt about this project. That’s exactly why I procrastinated so hard to even write my first entry. The more and more I mulled over it, just trying to think of how to put what I felt in words, I had an “aha” moment. I felt the same exact way when Lesly first propositioned this crazy concept of Meraki LB to me. That moment of dread, the fear of maybe, just maybe, this wasn’t really going to work out. This whole project just sounded too good to be true.
I’ve felt that way about many things in my life; the feeling of uncertainty. I’m sure that feeling has had you or others just back down, step away, and just leave things as is. I know damn well, that has happened to me too many times. I’m the type where I’d rather not take the risk, just because of the fear that I would fail.
I was afraid to even write my first blog entry. Like, how in the world would I fail writing about how I felt?
Sure, uncertainty is a perfectly normal feeling to feel. However, it should not hold you back from doing something you know you can learn from. Something you know you can GROW from.
Starting something new is always scary. Starting means you put yourself and your reputation out there and at risk. Starting means you are facing head on the possibility that you may fail, and fail in front of family and friends who may have supported you in some sort of way.
So instead of doing any of those frightening things, it is easier, and feels safer, to keep thinking of how you’ll start something new. There will always be one more piece of information you need. More research you have to do. One more call you have to make. One more thing you have to do. And so you never really actually “start.”
“You miss a 100% of the shots you don’t take.” - Wayne Gretzky.
Whether Wayne meant that literally (he was a hockey player after all) or whether he meant that metaphorically, it’s 100% true. In other words, you can't succeed unless you try. You must take action. Whether it is slowly, or whether it is all at once, don’t stop yourself because you feel self-doubt.
Us girls made the jump, and made this idea, “this crazy concept” in my opinion, into a reality. We stopped procrastinating and just went for it. And I’ve seen the progress it’s made first hand. As I think about it now, I want to kick myself for even procrastinating in the first place.
So all in all, I just want to say, don’t let yourself hold you back. You have an idea, go for it. Your goals don’t need to align to others. But don’t stop yourself just because you have the fear of failing them; especially if you’re not even taking action to start them in the first place.
