For years I started one project after the next. I knew there was something in me that could create. Create content. Create a business. Create meaning for others. Create a book. Create meaningful impact. Create my own source of income. Create, create, create. It was there. I started this, I started that. I was nearly done with this, just about complete with that. I sat with product after product, document after document, folder after folder, course after course, manuscript after manuscript, framework after framework, just about done. I sold things for a bit, and then it was the next. Then one day, I heard someone say something along the lines of, “the project done 99% is as good as not done at all,” and it hit me hard.
Why do so many of us have all these brilliant ideas, but that’s all they are and that’s where they stay? They remain ideas, or perhaps, they are out there in conversations around the coffee table, dinner table, at the barbecue / braai, but that’s where they remain – words. Then for others, they are at 99% completion, but finishing that final 1% is so difficult – or we don’t even consciously see it as difficult, we just keep them safely there, safely quiet, safely perfect, because releasing it, showing it to the world, opens us up for criticism, failure, rejection. Subconsciously, we stay at that 99% point because keeping it there keeps us safe against the vulnerability of being judged – fearful (knowingly or unknowingly) of what lies beyond that 1% step. The only gap between what’s done and what’s not, being that last final step.
It was such a profound (yet simple) realisation for me that the world by no means lacks brilliant ideas; it’s just that that’s what most of them remain – ideas that are thought and spoken about, but not acted upon or brought into being. My friend, it really is that simple. Not easy, but simple. That one last step is all that stands between you, me, and unleashing the great light that, by the way, is already inside our beings.
Subconscious fear of judgment is incredibly deceptive because it rarely shows up as blatant fear. Instead, it surfaces as perfectionism, procrastination, me having “high standards” or “just needing one more tweak before it’s ready.”
By keeping a project at 99%, it remains perfect in your mind – i.e., it’s perfect as long as nobody sees it. The moment you cross to 100% and release it, it becomes real and we feel completely and utterly exposed to what we fear might be the worst (the criticism and judgment of others).
Another thing holding us back is that so many of us say, “It’s too late.” We say it’s too late for ourselves, or when we hear someone else has an idea, we impose our timebound limitations on them by discouraging them from their ideas, telling them it is too late for them to do this, that or the other. Who gave a timeline? Who says it’s too late? We all have something inside ourselves to give. Who said there’s an expiration date to when and how much we can give to the world? We are here to give, here to serve, up until the day we say goodbye to this earth. Not the moment we retire. Not the moment we turn 40, 50, 60… hey, for some that may have even been 30 – whatever age limit we’ve set on ourselves. We say there is so much that needs to be done before we can start consulting, start that business, start a programme, get our clients – heck, it can be as simple as starting a new exercise routine or learning to play an instrument! But do we start out with 1000 clients, or do we start with an idea and zero clients? We want the end result, but no step in between. We say we can’t start now, because it is going to take a year of research, a year of building credibility, and that is too much time. But if we don’t start now, we will still be in the same place that we are today, one year later, when we could have taken that first step today, to get there. We say we are too tired. So what is our plan? Is our plan to then just continue to be tired until we exit life on this earth? Or can we actually start with the one thing we wanted to do, and take one step, just one, each day, in the direction of what it is we have to offer?
We also tell ourselves, “What’s the point? There are so many people doing the same thing out there in the market.” But hey, how many people are on the globe? Does each one connect with everyone? How did we become the expert in saturation? We as individuals don’t connect with everyone around us, yet we discredit ourselves as being relatable to others who will find something distinctly parallel to their needs that will not be a complete match elsewhere. We limit our possibility by diminishing the value and impact that we can and will add to even just one other being, furthermore keeping us safe in our current state – I will not call that current state our comfort zone, because truly, is it comfortable? Is living in a state of lack comfortable? And when I say lack, I don’t mean we don’t have the basics that we need on a daily basis, I mean lack of the sheer vitality of life that is available to us, I mean lack of the freedom from the trapped lifeforce inside of us, I mean lack of the awareness of what lies beyond the 99% barrier and what may unfold once that 1% step has been taken.
These thoughts flashed through my mind, and pages later, I sat down and said, “That’s it, I’m done.” I’m done waiting for perfection to prevail before I close off this chapter. I’m done waiting until I feel ready. I’m done waiting until I feel like I’m qualified to share what I know. I’m done waiting to be okay. I’m taking that first step in the direction of what I’m here to give. This piece is going to be published, and that’s that. Perfectly imperfect in its execution – shared with the world, the world of 1, of 2, or however many it may reach. That one last step could very well be the light that opens up a doorway of possibility inside another too. How else on earth does the evolution of life unfold?