One of my favorite quotes is “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great” by Zig Ziglar. Have you ever struggled to get started on something that was new to you or you held yourself back because it was out of your comfort zone? What causes this hesitation? Is it fear, a lack of confidence, the fear of failure, the concern about what others may think or just the uncertainty of not knowing how to get started? It may be a combination of all of these things at different times along the way.
What did I do when I felt this way? To be successful, I knew that I had to trust myself and remember that I have done this before and I can do it again. I hired myself an executive coach, talked with my peers/friends and worked with my team to help me look at things in other ways to gain different perspectives. I found the mentors and managers that had always supported me and I asked for help and advice to be able to move forward.
So what can you do if this happens to you? It may feel overwhelming, but find a way to break things down into small steps. Find great people to work with, listen to others, ask for help from people who have done it before or get a coach to help you move forward. What if you try and it doesn’t go well? Richard Branson said, “Do not be embarrassed by your failures, learn from them and start again.” You are going to make mistakes and you may have to course correct along the way. That is okay. I don’t regret any of the missteps that I have had along the way in my career. I am actually grateful for all the good and bad experiences because each one of them taught me so much about myself and my leadership. I may have stumbled at times, but I didn’t give up and my team and I had great successes.
The important thing is to find a way to move forward and take action. Just start wherever you are. Be brave and take the risk. You and your team may accomplish something that is even greater than you even imagined. You could be the leader who takes something that seems impossible and makes it possible. Robert F. Kennedy once said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”Are you ready to get started and achieve great things?
