Most people I know are waiting to feel ready. They want to feel confident before making the big decisions, the big change. It could be they want raise prices, confront an underperforming partner, or leave the secure job to start something of their own. It sounds reasonable but it’s backwards. Confidence comes by doing the thing, surviving it, and noticing that the sky stayed where it was.
Think about the first time you did something you were worried about such as negotiating a contract or purchase on your own behalf, or standing up to speak in front of a room of strangers. If you are like most of us, your hands were not steady and your voice did not sound like you. Yet somewhere in the middle, the dread gave way to concentration, and by the end you had a little more evidence about what you are capable of. That evidence is what we later label confidence. The people who seem fearless are mostly people who have accumulated a long record of doing uncomfortable things and learning they could handle the aftermath.
This matters for business because avoidance tends to be dressed up as prudence. I hear it as needing more research, waiting for a better quarter, or wanting to run it by one more advisor. Some caution is wise. I’m not against reading the fine print. But there is a difference between preparing and stalling, and you can usually tell which one you are doing by asking whether the next round of preparation will actually change your decision. If it won’t, you’re not gathering information, you’re renting a little more comfort at a steep price.
So shrink the scary thing until you can start it today, without pretending it is not scary. Make the call you have been worried about before you check email. Send the proposal with the higher number. Put the difficult conversation on the calendar so it can no longer be negotiated with. Then pay attention to how you feel afterward, because that is where the confidence you were waiting for will show up, a step behind you the whole time. Do it once and the next one gets smaller, and after a handful of those you will wonder what you were so worried about.
