“Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.”
– Alan Cohen
Today I went and spoke at Brigham Young University to a class of around 350 students. After my presentation I spent time doing open Q&A with them and I have to admit that the Q&A portion is my favorite part of a talk because, while I try to include topics in my presentation that I think will be of interest to whatever audience I’ve been asked to speak to, the Q&A portion ends up helping me remember so many other impactful past experiences to share that I may not have thought of sharing otherwise. That and I’m always so inspired by the students and how thoughtful they are and today was no exception.
One message I hope they took away from today’s talk is – not to wait for conditions to be perfect to begin things – just BEGIN! Too often people wait to begin because they feel they have to get everything perfectly planned out first, when the reality is that conditions are constantly going to be changing so even if you plan down to the most minute detail and prep for every “what if” scenario possible you’ll still end up changing that plan a thousand times over as those conditions around you are always changing.
Move forward AS you plan, not after. Just make a start…you’ll figure the rest out as you go.
~Amy Rees Anderson (author of the book “What Awesome Looks Like: How To Excel in Business & Life” )