Even though I was in my early thirties when I first fell pregnant—hardly a teenager—I had mixed emotions. I was ecstatic at the idea of being a mum, but I remember also thinking, ‘I am not ready for this’.
I had a house, security, a job, savings, had travelled, but I still worried I needed more of everything. That felt more intense as the pregnancy ticked along. Then of course when I had my daughter I realised you’re never really ready for parenthood and you just have to dive in and make it work.
I’m always reminded of that when I start working with clients who’ve waited and waited to engage me as their mentor to grow their biz. The question is then, have they waited too long and missed their moment?
Here’s what I hear: they got stuck thinking they needed more clients, traction, money. More of a profile, more website traffic, more business ideas before they reached out. The reality is that put off achieving desired objectives because they were so focused on getting ready for them.
On the flip side, I have plenty of brave clients who engaged me before they were ready but knew they needed me on their team. Watching them blossom gives me so much joy.
Maybe that’s because I’m blossoming myself and putting my own coaching into action.
My friend Kate Christie rang just after Christmas with an invitation. Would I walk the Larapinta Trail in the Northern Territory with her? She said it would be incredible, would require lots of training and would change my life. But she needed an immediate answer.
My first thought was, hell no. I hadn’t felt my glutes in forever, was lacking motivation after a hard personal year, and am a woman who camps with a king size mattress. An intense hike tailored for experts was light years outside my comfort zone.
Oddly, that’s what made me step out of it and into my power zone. All the things that were holding me back, all the excuses, became what propelled me to level up.
Even as I said a very tentative yes, I knew I wasn’t ready then and probably wouldn’t be when the time came. But truth is I’ll never be ready emotionally, physically or mentally to do the Larapinta. Until I get there and just do it.
It’s a real misnomer in life and business that you need to be ‘ready’ to do something. Like my clients who wait until they miss their window. If you jump in before your ducks are lined up, we work through everything together. This saves bucket loads of time and gets you where you want to be, faster.
The idea of realising you’re never ready then taking fast action has become an obsession, and it’s something many of my private coaching clients tell me they struggled with until I became their wingwoman (packages https://www.katrinamccarter.com/privatecoaching/).
Be honest with yourself: what are you wanting to get done and holding back from? Now is the time to say yes.