Stronger Than You Think

Or as weak as you think.

Start before you are ready.

- Can’t remember

The question is, how far are you willing to stretch? You most likely would never know how much you can stretch until you make up your mind, in faith, to stretch.

Just how many things have you let go of? Just how many of your desires and goals have you looked away from, quit, or never even started at all because you didn't think you were strong enough, ready enough, or you just didn't have what it took? Take a pause and think about it.

We have been doing it all wrong. We have been thinking it all wrong. We always try to determine how strong and fast and ready and prepared and focused we are before we venture into something that will improve the quality of our lives and give us the growth that we so desire, when in fact, it is the other way around. You venture into it first, then you find out how strong and prepared you are along the way.

And news flash, you'd always find out that you are stronger than you thought ab initio. You'd almost always find out that you underestimated the capacity that you have, or that you could develop along the way of that venture.

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A while back, I listened to a speaker who preached "Start before you're ready," and I thought it was excellent because readiness many times is the hindrance. We drag our feet for many weeks, many months, trying to prepare for something that has been on our minds for longer than that, and the more time we spend thinking about it, preparing to be strong for it, getting ready to be worthy of it, fixing ourselves to be capable to handle it, the idea starts to seep slowly out of us, decreasing in the intensity with which it first came.

The speaker asserted, "It might be daunting, you might feel like you're going to get crushed but start. Start before you figure it all out. Start before you're ready. Before your mind talks you out of it. Before your mind gives you all the reasons why you cannot do it. Start before you're ready."

Many times, readiness can be a hindrance.

Start and you'll be befuddled at how strong you were and how capable you are in the face of it. You don't have to be worthy. Most times, you won't be. You just have to do it. If it came to you, then it means you can do it.

I am sure you must have heard me say this many times. Nothing comes into your mind unless it has the potential of coming into your hands. If you can think it, you can achieve it.

It could be a brand idea, to start a business, to begin a podcast, or even to start a community, and this has been playing your head around for months. You have been thinking you don't have the skills to start; that nobody in your family has ever successfully kickstarted something, and you sure as hell won't be the first. You have probably thought that you'd suck at it so much, you'll become a mockery and never do any other thing. You are most likely thinking you are not strong enough.

Perhaps you're right, perhaps you're wrong, but how about you start it and be sure? Chances are, you'd find that you didn't give your strength enough credit.

Even away from starting a brand. It could be to build a relationship. Perhaps you have tried and failed many times over. You have been hurt, and heartbroken. You have hurt and broken hearts, and you just don't think you're strong enough to build anything anymore. Perhaps you even think you’re not capable of it, or you've been cursed by a past ex, or you just generally suck at it, and you have a track record of failed relationships to show for it, so I can't even say perhaps you're right, perhaps you're wrong on this.

However, I can say that you can stretch. You won’t know what the universe has in store for you next if you don't stretch. You wouldn't know how much you have learned from a previous relationship if you don't decide to build another. And therein is where growth lies; when you put into work all that you have learned.

You don't grow at the point of learning. You grow at the point where you put your hands on the plow and work. And take it from me, you are strong enough to do so.

Your bane could be to learn a skill, to move from the familiar, to relocate from the only place you have known all your life, to change what was once a conviction that you don't believe in anymore, to switch communities or exit one that isn't serving you anymore, it could be anything. Just do it. Just start. You will never know how strong you are until you take the first step. You will never know how strong you can become until you start to stretch.

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Whatever it is that could change and improve the quality of your life, that's where you need to be. That's what you need to start doing, regardless of what you think about your capabilities, your readiness, preparation, strength, whatever.

If you're not ready or strong, still go ahead and start. Strength will meet you on the way. If you suck at it so bad you want to quit, know that the only way to get so good at something is to suck at it first, and maintain the consistency to keep at it.

In the end, you could fail, you could find out that you truly weren't strong enough and let go — and this is most times, unlikely. It is the exception.

When you find out you weren't strong enough after all, you'd have learned invaluable lessons, and grown from where you were before. You'd have built extra courage for your journey.

Start even if you're weak. Start even if you're not ready. You'd be shocked how much the universe is willing to find strength across the world for you to continue because the universe is in the business of making it work for the person who decides to work.

Start even if you are weak. Start today.

To your growth,

Your Coach,

Abiola Okunsanya,

Handzinspired. ✨