The Five Lie Series- Lie #4

Lie Number 4: You don't have enough or know enough to pursue this. 

Here's a list of all the things I don't have:

• A journalism degree
• Experience reading my work out loud at a trendy coffee shop where people snap for me instead of clap
• An office
• A publication in a popular magazine
• A well-known book in bookstores with my name on it
• Experience at a writers retreat or conference or workshop
• A special fancy certification documenting my ability to write
• A steady paycheck
• Experience teaching a writing course

I don't have all these things. Therefore, I don't know enough or have enough to pursue my dream as a full-time career.

Lie lie lie lie lie.

When we create reasons and justifications that we do not have enough or we do not know enough to pursue what sets are heart on fire, we are just feeding fear. We put up these excuses because we are afraid about what would happen if we stopped believing them. If we believe the lie that we have to have it all together in order to move forward, all we do is stay stagnant. If we wait until we think we have all of the credentials, all of their resources, all of the time, all the talent, and all of the skills to confidently pursue what we love, we'll never do it. We will never have everything we need. The only thing we can do is work with what we have at the moment. Everything else will come with experience. 

I have friends who don't pursue their dream of being a well-known mommy blogger simply because right now they don't have as many followers as Kim Kardashian. I have friends who dream about owning their own pre-school, but all they have right now is a part-time job at a daycare. I know a guy who wants to start his own landscaping business, but he won't get up and do it because he doesn't have a fancy lawn care truck or the coolest weed eater machine on the market. 

Personally, I've always had this stir in my heart to write a children's book called Awesome Dawson, but I can give you a list a hundred miles long of why I don't have enough or know enough to do it.

I've never written a children's book before. 
I don't know how to draw.
I don't know the editing and publishing process.
No one's going to want to read it. 
I don't have enough time with all my other clients.

It's all a freaking lie. Everybody starts at the beginning. All of the famous authors, well-known playwrights, artists, entrepreneurs, small business owners- they all began at square one. They all took what they had at the time and did something great with it. Or they took what they had at the time, and they failed. And then they learned from it, and they tried again. Either way, nobody has all the resources and all the knowledge when they start something new. It's just not how it works. 

Chances are, you know more about what you want to do than you did last year. And even if you don't have any additional resources now than you did back then,  your vision for what you want to do and who you want to be is probably a little bit more evident than it was two years ago. Which means you are continually making progress without having all of the fancy equipment or fancy certifications or degrees that you keep convincing yourself that you need. 

When you get excited about taking the next step towards the big thing you want to do, and that a little annoying voice reminds you that "I don't know enough or have enough to do this" you can stop that voice right in its tracks. Identify it as fear, and list all the things that you do have that make you completely capable of pursuing your goal. 

Imagine the things we could do if we stopped waiting for the perfect time and used what we had to take the next right step. For me, that means setting a date to start the writing process for Awesome Dawson. You heard it here, folks. I'm going to use the resources, knowledge, experience, and skill set that I have at this very moment to do something that scares me a little bit. And I will trust in the process and have faith that I will learn what I need to learn along the way.

 I challenge you to do the same.