For a long time I had trouble committing to projects. I never said "yes, I'll do it" without feeling completely ready, like I knew how it would go from beginning to end.
I discovered you can often get the knowledge and skills after you commit.
I was at a bar in my twenties, talking to a fellow art school student. He was telling me about an upcoming show he had, and that he had to go home and start working on the pieces for it.
Wait. You have an art show lined up but you haven't done the work yet?
Sure! I know what I'm going to make, I just haven't made it yet.
This completely flipped my idea of work on its head. I couldn't imagine committing to a show without having everything finished and polished, let alone with zero work done. What he knew that I didn't was that the work was inside him, he just had to put it into the world.
But what if you don't finish? What if you don't even start? What I understand now is commitment is a powerful motivator. Before you commit to something you can hem and haw about the feelings you'll have. Once you decide, momentum takes over. It can even feel freeing - you don't have to weigh the options anymore, you just get to work.
That work can include getting up to speed, filling in the gaps in your knowledge. This is why you don't have to have it all planned out from the start, you can learn along the way. You'll learn things you wouldn't have without the commitment, because now you have to learn them. It's a good way to get out of your comfort zone, and is usually less uncomfortable than you imagine.
So now I default to "yes." Even when (especially when) there are unknowns. I still have the voice saying "well, I don't know..." but that voice gets quieter the more I say yes. It keeps me learning, keeps me a little uncomfortable, and keeps me finding abilities I didn't know I had.
I almost titled this post "Commit before you're ready," but that's not quite right. By the time you feel ready to take something on you've actually been ready for a while. So take it on!
