Sorry, the “Perfect Moment” to Work on Your Dream Will Never Come

“I’ve been wanting to start a blog like you do,” a friend told me a while back. “I’m just waiting for the right time. Need things to settle down a little bit, and then I’m going  to jump into it and make it happen.”

I understood where she was coming from. I’ve been there. When I was younger, I jumped right into creating The Spotlight, but was hesitant to take on other writing jobs thinking that I wouldn’t be able to handle the blog, studying and being involved at college, AND writing for other sites. I thought, “Maybe I should wait until after I graduate, and my workload slows down a little bit.” (Spoiler alert: it didn’t.) I took a chance and signed my first real freelance gig at the top of 2012, soon realizing that I could handle it. It took some A LOT of work, but I managed to make it happen.

Same thing happened when I got into the REAL, real world after college. I was afraid that I wasn’t good enough for certain writing gigs. That I needed to study and become stronger like this writer and that one. That I had to be 150% percent perfect in order to make it, and, until I was, there was no sense in going after certain opportunities. There was no point in attending different blogging conferences to network with other people. I hadn’t “made it” yet. The moment had to be just right. I had to be just right.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t grow in whatever your craft is. You absolutely should be working to better yourself as time goes on. But I can only imagine how many opportunities I missed out on waiting for me to “get my life together.” Sometimes, I think about different chances I could’ve had if only I had gone after things in spite of my feelings, and it kinda gets me in my feelings. So let me give this to you right quick:

In case no one ever told you, THE PERFECT MOMENT DOESN’T EXIST. 

You’re still going to have the job, and the bills, and the volunteer work, and the kids, and whatever else.  I’m basically in the same boat (minus the kids part. One day, I pray, but definitely not right now!). All of that is not going to go away; it’s going to be a juggling act for sure. At the end of the day, life isn’t going to just stop and wait on you to figure things out. You have to be confident working towards your new venture, and figure out how you can personally balance it all. You’re also have to realize that you’re not going to know how to do it all when you first start out, and that’s okay! Point blank, if you see yourself going in a new direction, or starting something new in your life, GO FOR IT! Don’t wait for an “ideal time,” because it truly will never come. You want to start a blog? Start one. You want to work towards opening your own business? Do it. You see yourself creating your own YouTube channel and killing it? Make it happen.

How? Here’s a few tips:

1. Don’t let the fact that you’re a beginner or rookie sway you. There will always be room for improvement, and you’ll find ways to work more efficiently as time goes on. You’re not going to know how to make every little piece of your goal happen at the very beginning. I knew NOTHING about running a blog, and how much it would take to seriously pursue and promote it. Google became one of my best friends, and I read articles and took classes (and still am). I slowly but surely learned what to do, what not to do, and what worked best for me. But I had to start somewhere. We all do.
2. Be real with yourself about what you can seriously sacrifice to make time to work towards your new goals (i.e., cutting out TV/Netflix time, getting off social media, making time at etc.). Make your weekends more productive instead of just sleeping in and chilling after the stressful week. I know it’s hard, but make those sacrifices if you really want to try your hand at a new thing.
3. Find ways to be more efficient in your work. Once you figure out days or times that you can work on your goal, figure out your best process on how you can get things done in bulk ahead of time. Case in point, for this site, I now use my down time to create and batch content for the days ahead (especially for things like #MondayMotivation and Words of Wisdom to be released each week). I got that from a masterclass from style blogger/influencer Mattie James. Literally, something that small (and seemingly common sense if I think about it for real) changed my life when it came to writing. That way, I’m not rushing to do things the day of, and I have time to work on even more posts for the future! Figure out your best process, and get things done.

At the end of the day, the gist of this is not to wait for the perfect time to do something new. Stop waiting for the right moment, because you’ll be waiting forever, and opportunities WILL pass you by. Put aside excuses or reasoning, and go after whatever sets your soul on fire. As time goes along, you’ll hit a few bumps and get a few bruises (or a lot probably), but you’ll get stronger and wiser. Never “perfect,” but definitely BETTER. But you can’t do that if you’re always waiting for the perfect moment. 

Imperfectly,