• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Starting imperfectly

Starting imperfectly

Goals are amazing to have. Setting your sights on the sky as the starting point, as the popular saying goes, is great. It is often advised to aim high, to ensure that we aren’t settling for the minimum best, when our abilities far outweigh them.

We give ourselves the initial first push as best as we can, the push to start working out, leave that demotivating job or even start a new business. Starting something for the first time can be a daunting task. There is a lot of fear involved in beginning afresh; when navigating new territory, we can get crippled by fear, but start anyway!

Embrace the fear, because waiting for it to go away will almost prove futile, feel the fear and push through it. Your first work might be a horrible rendition, but if you keep working at it, it will get better.

There have been many times when I allowed the fear of failure cripple my efforts, looking back now; I wish I had taken all the leaps and jumped all the hurdles. I just did not feel like I was good enough to start. I constantly felt like my project needed more research or my work needed more tweaking. I danced around the idea of making everything perfect, to the point where it pushed my completion date further and further away.
Eventually, when I felt like what I wanted to accomplish was unattainable, I left it.

Read also: One year to go: Whisper it quietly, but have we survived Buhari?

Starting eliminates the process of time-wasting, when you waste time to get the ball rolling, you allow negative thoughts grip you, imposter syndrome might come knocking which ultimately leads you to decide against doing anything. Even though you feel like you’re not good enough to start, you probably should start. You get better each time you do something, like the saying, “start anyway, you will perfect it later’.

Here are some tips that helped me navigate starting imperfectly:

Be curious and excited about your journey; excitement will spur action as you look forward to the amazing things in store for you.

Cultivating a positive outlook about your goals and life will go a long way in motivating you, especially, when you start to feel down about delays and setbacks.

Research, read and equip yourself with knowledge about your chosen field; it makes it easier when you are knowledgeable about your next course of action.

Start where you find yourself. You don’t need to wait until you are an award-winning writer, just start writing.

Give yourself the permission to start, fail, succeed, or stop.

Accept that there is no magical wand that you wave in the air, there are no Harry Potter spells to mutter under your breath. Starting is a process, just like everything else.

Comparison is the thief of joy, try not to compare your day 1, to another person’s day 100. Comparing journeys, especially without being armed with the full background story will serve to distract and demotivate you.

Everyone starts from the beginning; every beginning is different. Embrace your beginning and start your journey albeit imperfectly.