Start Before You’re Ready: Waiting for the Perfect Moment May Be Your Biggest Regret
- Melanie
- May 26
- 3 min read
I’ve lost count of how many people have told me, “If only things had lined up a little better… I could have done something amazing.”
They speak of opportunities missed, dreams shelved, time they feel they’ve lost forever.
We live in a time of the “most” — the most polished, most successful, most viral, most beautiful — and, thanks to social media, it’s constantly at our fingertips. It’s easy to believe that unless your beginning is perfect, it’s not even worth starting.
But here’s the truth: Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly… at first. (Zig Ziglar said it, and it’s true.) You don’t need to be perfect to begin. You just need to begin.
“Not Ready” (A Lie)
I’ve met so many gifted, brilliant, dedicated people paralyzed by the lie that they’re not good enough yet.
They talk about regrets in one breath, and in the next, they tell you why they’re still not ready.
“I need more time. More money. More confidence.”
But here’s the reality: readiness is a myth. It’s a mirage that moves further away every time you try to approach it.
The Day Everything Changed
Years ago, early in my husband’s ministry career, we were barely scraping by.
I was invited to the home of one of his colleagues. He and his friend were both pastors. They both made just enough money to get by, but certainly no more. His engaging wife was our hostess that day and I couldn’t believe her beautiful house. She saw the look on my face and smiled:
“Becoming a nurse was the best decision I ever made. It changed everything for our family.”
That moment planted a seed. I started to dream about going back to school. But we were in that all-too-familiar phase of life where one flat tire could derail everything. We couldn’t afford childcare, let alone tuition. We didn’t have a plan, but we did have one question:
“What would you do if you weren’t afraid?”
(Thank you, Who Moved My Cheese?)
And that’s when we decided: we’d stop waiting and start walking.
Faith, Feathers, and One Semester of Hope
We had no savings. No loans. No plan B.
But we had… parrots.
Seriously.
I had been raising and breeding Quaker parrots on the side — a little hobby that brought joy and life to our home. One day on the back porch, it clicked: this was our answer.
We sold all our breeding birds except for two little pets, and earned just enough for one semester of prerequisites.
That’s all we had. One semester. One shot.
And no idea how we’d pay for the next one.
But something beautiful happened when we took that first step: a way opened up.
When the Water Parts
On the first day of the nursing program — the day I literally showed up with no way to pay — two women stood up and introduced a little-known federal program called WIA (Workforce Initiative Act).
I qualified that same week.
That single step of faith led to every class, every book, every lunch being covered. I finished the program, earned my degree, and started a career that not only changed my family’s trajectory — it changed me.
What About You?
You may not have parrots. Or a perfect plan.
But what do you have?
What dream are you sitting on because you don’t feel ready?
What would you do if you weren’t afraid?
Let me tell you something I’ve learned the hard way:
If you wait until you’re ready, you may never start.
And if you never start, you guarantee your own failure.
But if you take the first step — even if it’s shaky, imperfect, or barely funded — you give yourself the chance to succeed.
Final Thoughts
Have you heard “May the road rise to meet you”? That won’t happen if you’re sitting on the couch. So many people wait for the path to appear before they move. But sometimes, the path only shows up after your feet touch the water.
You don’t need certainty to begin. You don’t even need what feels like courage. You just need to step in.
Whatever your “nursing school” is — go find it. Start poorly. Start small. But start.
Because starting badly is still infinitely better than not starting at all.
Wanna listen? (Mile Markers, Episode 02)
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