Ready, Set, Go!

"It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready.
I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything.
There’s almost no such thing as ready.
There’s only now.
And you may as well do it now.
I mean, I say that confidently as if I’m about to go bungee jumping or something — I’m not.
I’m not a crazed risk taker.
But I do think that, generally speaking, now is as good a time as any."
–Hugh Laurie (source)

What does it mean to be ready? Are we talking about time? Are we talking about preparation? Are we talking about skills?

What are we waiting for? Waiting to be ready.

As Hugh Laurie says... perhaps we are never fully ready. And if we are never ready, how many things in our life never get accomplished. How many songs never get sung, because we're not ready. Or the song's not ready. How many books don't get written, because we're not ready. Or the book's not ready.

I could wander through my life and convince myself that I am not ready to be a writer. That my book is not ready to see the light of day. That my musings are not ready to be posted on this blog.

The thing is... if all we do is dither around getting ready... but never approach the starting line, never get Set, and never Go... all that preparation is worse than useless. It's in the going that races are run. It's in the going that we have experiences.

To simply prepare and prepare, in order to get ready, but to never go... is as if we were always preparing for a trip, but never actually leaving the house. I'm not quite ready to go on that trip yet. I might be ready tomorrow... or maybe next week... or next month...

But next week doesn't exist. Nor does tomorrow. Nor does the next second. Until you experience it. And then it is gone. Each moment is a gift. It comes whether we are ready or not. The truth is... I am not the best judge of myself. I am in fact an extremely harsh critic of my myself and my writing. If I listened to myself, I'd never publish a single word. I'd probably never put a single word to paper.

Which is why these words gave me pause to think...

"It’s not your job to tell yourself no.
It’s not your job to reject yourself or grade yourself
or debate the value or worthiness of your ideas.
Your job is to create.
Your job is to share.
Your job is to overcome fear and run the race.

Yes, if you build something people might judge it or dislike it.
But if you don’t create and share the things that you have inside of you,
then you’ll commit the far worse crime of rejecting yourself.
You can either be judged because you created something
or ignored because you left your greatness inside of you."
–James Clear (source)

I suppose... in the light of that... I'd rather be judged than ignored. My job is to create, to write, to share. Because it lies within me and calls to be released and expressed.

Alas for those that never sing,
But die with all their music in them.

–Oliver Wendell Holmes