Hi Reader!
For years, we believed one of the most common pieces of self-help advice:
And while we think positive thinking has its place, we've noticed something interesting recently.
Most of us assume we need to feel confident before we take action.
But when we look back at the biggest changes we've made in our own lives, we didn't feel confident at all in the beginning.
We did it anyway.
๐คฆโโ๏ธ The Mistake We Used To Make
For a long time, we thought the formula looked like this:
๐ Confidence โ Action โ Results
But now we think it works more like this:
๐ Action โ Results โ Confidence
Because we usually don't feel confident before we start.
Confidence is something we build by doing.
โ๏ธ What Growth Actually Feels Like
One thing we've noticed is that personal growth is often portrayed as something that happens after you've become confident, certain, and ready.
But that's rarely been our experience.
Think about:
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Starting a business
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Changing careers
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Writing your first blog post
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Putting yourself out there in a new way
Most of the time, you don't feel confident.
You feel uncertain.
๐ญ The Fog Nobody Talks About
Imagine walking along a narrow plank into thick fog.
You can't see very far ahead.
You don't know how things will turn out.
Part of you wants to move forward, while another part wants to turn around.
And there's a voice in your head that keeps listing all the reasons it might not work.
It's so easy in that moment to give up and head back to where things feel familiar, isn't it?
But that's often what growth actually feels like.
๐ซ Not certainty.
๐ซ Not confidence.
Just taking the next step despite not knowing exactly where it will lead.
โจ Busy Doesn't Always Mean Progress
When it comes to pursuing a goal, it's surprisingly easy to stay passive.
And the funny thing is that we usually don't realize we're doing it.
Maybe you want to start an online business.
- So you spend weeks researching.
- Planning.
- Preparing.
On the surface, it feels productive.
But oftentimes we're avoiding the very things that would actually move us forward.
Passive can look like:
๐ซ Working on your website for hours to make it look perfect
๐ซ Spending hours searching for the perfect images
๐ซ Writing and editing blog posts without ever publishing them
Active can look like:
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Making your website live even though it's not perfect
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Publishing your work
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Accepting "good enough" instead of endlessly perfecting things
๐ค The Trap of Perfectionism
Now, we'll be honest.
We're perfectionists, so this is something we still struggle with ourselves.
We've spent far too much time tweaking things that were already good enough instead of simply putting them out into the world.
But the problem is that nothing is ever truly perfect.
People who make progress are willing to take action before they feel ready and before everything is polished.
And honestly?
No matter how happy you are with something today, you'll probably look back a year from now and see ways it could have been better.
That's because you're growing.
The starting point will always be less polished than where you eventually end up.
And that's completely okay. ๐
โจ Takeaway
Maybe growth isn't about becoming fearless.
Maybe it's about being willing to move before you feel ready.
Because confidence often shows up after you take action.
Not before.
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Now we'd love to hear from you, Reader.
What's something you've been putting off because you don't feel ready yet?
๐ Hit reply and tell us. We read and reply to every answer. ๐
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See you next week,
Founders of Courier Mind
P.S. If you'd like to learn more about why positive thinking alone isn't enough to reach your goals, we've shared our thoughts in the full article below ๐
โจ Why Positive Thinking Isn't Enough to Reach Your Goalsโ
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