A lot of times I got asked the same question:
“ Do you feel ready to…..move to Portland, do this job, take this responsibility?”
To this day I have always hated this question as it ultimately raised the next question in me which was what the correct answer would or should be.
I still don’t know if there is answer to it when your boss, co-workers or your friends are asking you this question no matter how well they mean. How honest do I have to be? What are they expecting? What does it help to know?
For sure one of the reasons why I have never liked it is the fact that at least I never felt 120% ready taking on the next challenge or opportunity and it made me insecure as well as I felt kind of caught in the act.
I doubt if anybody ever is ready for something really new and big. Okay, maybe a national team might feel “ready” to win the world cup, a top athlete might be ready to win an olympic gold medal. I get that.
And a lot of people talk about being ready for the next thing almost having the expectation that there needs to be the next thing – for example a promotion. But are they really ready for it?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Talking myself I can say I always wanted to be ready for the next step, but no matter what I did I never felt 100% good to go. Maybe it was also caused by the fact that I love things to be perfect and well planned.
Looking back I think it’s also pretty natural not to be ready and but this not a reason to freak out about it or to hold back taking the next step. Just keep going.
And again it was working in the event industry that made a huge impact on me being motivated to try out new things and going for it.
Events always have an event date.
The event date is fixed, it’s the end or let’s say the goal you are working towards.
Sometimes it is still years away, sometimes just a couple of weeks, when you start planning and prepping for the big day to come.
The moment you start working on it a lot of topics have not been figured out, you don’t know even know about the issues and road blocks that might be popping up along the road as well as you might totally underestimate certain issues while over thinking other areas of the project. As time goes by decisions need to be made, challenges need to be overcome and solutions need to be found to make it happen.
And you hardly ever feel that there is enough time. If you had one more day that you could invest working on this presentation before sending it out, if you had the chance to on another site visit before set-up and if there would be a little bit more time to double-check, do another meeting with your crew as well as getting all your needed answers from you client, that would be great, right? The reality is that there is never enough time. At least this is what it feels like.
But the reality also shows that they are hardly any events – at least I don’t know of any – that have been canceled because people didn’t feel ready for it, the set-up wasn’t ready or the food or anything that would highly impact the success of it. It’s always the same: The date will come, the event will happen and nobody will notice. It will all work out, it will be fine. It will great.
Having that said I think it’s basically the same in your life:
Sometimes you just have to listen to your guts, have to get up and go for it. It will be ok. It will work out and you will get there.
Having the believe and the consciousness was a huge success factor for me and made me doing things that indeed took a lot of courage.
It made me moving to the US, starting an office over here and getting challenged every day with new things I have never heard off, I was expected to handle or so many things I had no clue about ( in business and private life). If somebody would have told me about what to expect, prep and be ready for before committing to do this job, I probably would have thought twice about it and I would have been even more scared of than I was hopping on the plane almost 5 years ago.
But the fact of being open for it and just doing it nevertheless opened me doors to a life that I never would have imagined.
Living in the US is wonderful and it has changed my mind as well as broaden my horizon in so many good ways. It made me understand another part of our world, learning another culture and being even more open to new things and opportunities. I am so glad I haven’t missed out on that chance although the decision leaving Berlin, a city I loved as well as people living there I loved wasn’t easy at all back then.
Nonetheless I wouldn’t like to trade this experience for anything else in my life.
LIFE BEGINS AT THE END OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE is what describes it for me.
The moment you do something new, something uncomfortable you get fueled by the new experience and as you tag along you gain more and more power and energy to overcome the challenges that might occur on your new journey. You will be fine. I am sure.
Take chances. It will be so worth it.
And if it doesn’t work at all – you can always change it.
Yes. You can.
Happy Sunday!
Maika
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