“Do everything before you’re ready.”

-Jodie Fox, lawyer turned entrepreneur, co-founder of shoes of prey

I read this quote as I finally began #therechargechallenge. (A guided reflection/goal-setting program hosted by The Rising Tide Society on instagram)

Ironically, as I was reading the introduction in the guide, I was already thinking about my big takeaway from this year being: the year that I finally released my book was the year I was least prepared for it.

And then I read those words above and laughed at the irony.

This is EXACTLY what the last two years has been about for me.

On my journey to publishing, I learned that I needed a platform to go along with my manuscript. And the fastest way to get that was to begin a public speaking career.

Sure, I knew I would be speaking on stages on day, but I assumed it would be after I released a book and organizations would invite me in to tell my story and talk about the book.

Instead, after a couple phone calls to some mentors of mine in the Summer of 2015, I found myself booked into my first public speaking gig….. And no idea what I was doing.

But I did it anyway.

A little over a year later, just when I’d started to get my confidence bearings there, I realized I was running out of months in yet another year, and my book was still sitting inside my laptop in Microsoft Word.

So, I set a date on the calendar for my book release – I felt mighty and accomplished – and thirty seconds later I thought, oh Crap! That’s only 7 weeks from now!! I have way too much to do in just 7 weeks to make this happen! 

But I just did it anyway.

When I didn’t feel ready, enough.

When I didn’t feel prepared, enough.

When I didn’t feel qualified, enough.

When I wondered of the book was enough.

It was a lot of late nights, and hard work, and frantic emails/phone calls, and learning marketing & design on the fly, and leaning into some great people who were willing to help this clueless, in-over-her-head, with a deadline, chick.

And it got done. Before I was ready to hit “publish”, I did.

And people’s lives are beginning to change.

Elizabeth Gilbert puts it this way, “Start before you’re ready and before you’re good at it. That’s how you get ready and how you get good at it.”

Oh how I’ve learned that’s true.