Two years ago, I went to buy a car and I asked the sales person, who was my neighbor, “when is the best time of year to buy a car”? He responded, “when YOU are ready”! Cue Jane’s head jerk and raised eyebrow. That was not the response I was looking for! “That was a master sales pitch executed very well”, I said to myself. I drove out of the dealership with my new car and that statement embedded into my brain.

Fast forward to a year later; I received a phone call from my dear friend, Vanessa. Vanessa has her own successful photography business and loves to help her friends pursue their dreams. She’s quite good at it too! She was spending a lot of time educating and pushing one person in particular. This person kept saying she wanted to start her own wedding photography business. She would have spurts where she was super motivated but she didn’t seem committed. It was a vicious cycle that she was stuck in. Vanessa expressed her frustration to me. She just didn’t know how to help her friend move along. Can you guess what my response was? “She will move forward when SHE is ready. You cannot force her. There will be a time when something will click and SHE will decide she is ready. Then and only then will she flourish”. How do I know this? Because the car salesman told me. Haha! Just kidding. Because I was there too!

I was once stuck in the cycle of “I want it! I want it! I want it!”, but was I really working for it? No, I wasn’t. Why not? Because I was not ready. I was making excuses: “I’m too busy”, “I have no time”, “I have to work”, “I feel guilty not spending time with my son”, “I don’t have the money”, “I’m too tired”, “I don’t know enough”, “I’m not good enough”, “I want a social life”, “I need my ‘me’ time”, “I want to sleep”, “it’s too much work”, “I don’t know where to start”.

There will always be room for excuses. Always! But once you let go of those excuses and start executing, that’s when you are ready! That’s when I was ready. Let go of the excuses. Throw them in the trash! Find a way to make it work! Find where you can make the change to make it work for you! You’re first step doesn’t have to be a life-altering move that everyone has to see, unless that’s what you want. You can start small. If you’re ready to chase your dreams, live your life more meaningfully, and pursue what will make you happy, then throw away the excuses! Go for it! Do it! Eventually, you will find a workflow that works so smoothly that you’ll wonder why you didn’t start sooner!