Acting before you're ready

We all have ideas. Travelling around the world, starting a project, changing jobs, going to live somewhere else, learning a language, driving across a country, creating a company, starting a YouTube channel.

And having ideas feels good. You can spend hours imagining what you will do, watching videos, comparing destinations, building plans in your head. For a moment, it almost feels like you have already started.

Except that nothing has happened yet. And in the end, the only thing that really counts is what exists in the real world.

Almost everyone has said at some point: "One day, I'll travel around the world." How many actually did it? How many said: "This summer I'm going on a big road trip", and finally stayed home because it was not the right moment? How many have had a business idea for three years but have never sent a first message to a potential client?

Having an idea is not very hard. Taking action is much harder. That is exactly why I try more and more to put myself on the side of the people who do.

Sorry, I am dragging you along with me in the story here, but I want to be one of the players rather than one of the spectators. Even if I mess up sometimes. Even if a project does not work. Even if I spend money on something that turns out to be a bad idea. At least something will actually have happened.

You are never really ready

I think one of the biggest traps is waiting until you feel ready. Because that moment almost never comes.

For a real adventure, there will always be a good reason to wait: you should save a bit more, organise things better, wait for a better period at work, improve your English, get more experience, watch a few more videos, wait for ticket prices to come down.

Our brain is very good at that. It does not necessarily tell us: "Never go." It is far more subtle. It tells us: "Not now. But soon."

And "soon" is an extremely comfortable date because it does not really exist.

So I believe a lot in actions that force you to move forward. Buying the plane ticket. Sending the message. Booking something. Handing in your notice. Announcing a project publicly. Paying the registration fee. Making the first expense.

From that point on, your idea starts having consequences in the real world. When your plane ticket is bought for three months from now, you no longer spend three months wondering whether you are going to leave. You start wondering how you are going to leave. That is completely different.

I have lived through it several times. For many of my trips, I was not especially "ready". At some point, I simply created a situation in which I had to become ready. And oddly enough, you find solutions.

You don't find time, you take it

The second brake is very close to the first one: time. "I'll do it when I have the time." I think that sentence buries an enormous number of projects.

Because free time appearing by magic almost never happens. You don't wake up on a Tuesday morning telling yourself: "Amazing, I have six months free ahead of me, enough money and no obligations. I'm going to travel around the world." That is generally not how it works.

The reasoning has to be reversed. You tell yourself: "I want to travel around the world." And then you build the six months you need.

You save. You organise your work. You cut some spending. You set your dates. You get your ticket.

Time appears because you decided that something was important enough to make room for it.

It is exactly the same for a huge number of projects. We often say we don't have time to create something, to travel, to do sport, to write or to get started. Sometimes it is true. We all have different constraints and some periods of life make certain things very difficult.

But often, "I don't have time" mostly means: "I have not yet decided to give this thing enough priority." And that is already far more interesting to look at honestly.

Do something, then see

I don't think you should become reckless either. Acting before you are ready does not mean putting all your savings on a completely stupid idea tomorrow morning. It is not about ignoring the consequences of your decisions either.

It simply means accepting that at a certain point, thinking more does not change much any more. You have to test reality.

Send the email and see if anyone answers. Publish the video and see if anyone watches it. Buy the ticket and see how the trip goes. Launch the site and see if anyone comes to it. Talk to the first client. Put something up for sale. Do the first kilometre.

Reality gives far more information than weeks spent thinking.

And at worst? You fail. More and more, I prefer a real mistake to a perfect project that never existed. A mistake teaches you something. An idea you keep in your head for five years teaches you almost nothing.

There will always be some fear, a bad reason to wait and a missing detail. At some point, you have to accept that and take the first step anyway.

Because deep down, I believe you don't become ready before you start. You become ready because you started.

There is obviously a big subject behind all of this: money. Travelling, leaving a job or launching a project often requires a certain financial margin. I will devote a separate article to it, and I will add it here once it is published.

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