The Moment: what happened
My first year in California, I was working at an IT training lab in Emeryville. My job was keeping students from quitting. Fluorescent lights, the hum of old computers. A woman in her forties—a former admin assistant trying to break into tech—had been grinding through practice tests for six weeks straight.
"How's it going?" I asked.
"Good. Getting better. I want to make sure I'm really ready before I schedule the exam."
"What'd you get on your last practice test?"
"Sixty-eight."
"Schedule the exam. Today."
"But I need seventy to pass. I'm not—"
"Schedule it for two weeks out. Pick a date right now. The pressure will help you pass."
She did. Stopped meandering. Started drilling her weak spots like her rent depended on it. Test day came. She squeaked by with a 71 percent.
"I never would've scheduled it on my own," she told me after. "I'd still be 'getting ready.'"
The Moral: why it matters
I see the same pattern everywhere. The project with no ship date drifts forever. The hard conversation you're "waiting for the right moment" to have never happens. The ask you'll make "when the time is right" doesn’t get made.
Readiness doesn't create deadlines. Deadlines create readiness.
The Move: what to do about it
I still prepare thoroughly. But now I pick the date first, then back into the readiness.
The book I'm writing. The trip I want to take. The conversation I've been avoiding. Date goes on the calendar before I feel ready.
Make you own deadline.
Gut Check: What have you been "getting ready" for so long that getting ready has gotten in the way of the goal?
—John Grover