Conquering Intimidation

“Oh, I could never learn to do that, have you seen me.”

We’ve all heard someone say this at least once. I know I’ve said it myself, and you may have too. Anytime we start something new; it can feel intimidating or even overwhelming. Intimidation usually comes because we overestimate the task and underestimate our abilities. We lack confidence in our natural abilities.

For instance, learning to drive. There are billions of drivers who get behind the wheel of an automobile and operate it to get from place to place more than several times a day. However, out of these billions of drivers, many are mentally “ungifted” and would score average on every test administered to them. Yet the majority of them have never gotten into any accidents. So how hard is it?

Every day people around the world write books, save money, and even start their own business. Thousands find jobs, lose weight, and get healthy. People fall in love, get married and start new careers, or start school. People do so many other things you may have been thinking are too hard, too complicated, or too far beyond you, but the truth is you have wanted to do them for a long time.

The truth is, they are no different than you.

Take time to write down what you have been holding yourself back from doing? Don’t write down a list, but instead feel what calls you? What is the thing that finds you in your dreams? The picture you play over and over in your head: “if I could just…”, and you fill in the blank.

Picture someone you know who isn’t particularly good at multi-tasking, but who is now doing the very thing you want to do. Maybe you find yourself thinking about how to start a business. There are hundreds of people who aren’t business savvy, lack degrees, and are bad at math, and yet they own their own business without going bankrupt.

Chances are, you do not lack the intelligence, ability, or talent. The training itself surely is not the stumbling block since people regularly get the same education you’re wanting.

You want permission. That’s right. Even though you can decide things on your own, you wait around for somebody to validate you, pick you from a crowd, and prove to you that you can succeed.

Success doesn’t often occur that way, and it doesn’t have to, but it does start with two actions — your decision to start and the choice to keep going.

You can’t wait for everything to be perfect. The lesson I learned is that any action is the right action. Even imperfect action is a good action. You need to start and keep going. If you hit a bump in the road, you learn from it and then move on.

While having expertise can certainly make things easier, it can also make things more difficult. Sometimes ignorance is bliss because if you know too much, you want perfection. It would be best if you learned to use the knowledge that you have for yourself instead of against yourself.

Give yourself the grace to be a beginner. But you need to start and keep moving forward.