The following is a post I shared quite a long time ago. I wanted to share it with you again. I think it’s critical for us to be able to look back and be able to see how far we have come in our lives in different areas. Also important is to be able to look back and celebrate the wins, success and growth, and even learn valuable lessons. Thank you to all of you who have joined me on this ride so far and encouraged me as I have taken this step of faith and vulnerability. I appreciate it.
Guess what! I just launched my website. Well I guess you’ve already figured that out since you are reading this here on my website. Ha, ha.
I had wanted to wait until it was all perfect, and I felt like I was ready to go, BUT that mentality has held me back long enough. For many years in fact. So I went ahead anyway and now it’s launched and will continue to be a work in progress, just like I am.
Can you relate to that? Is there something you are “working on” but it won’t launch, be published, be started, or be opened up because you are waiting? Are you waiting for perfection? Courage? Things to line up perfectly? Are things like that holding you back? I totally get it.
We really just want to dip our toe in to the water just a bit to test it out. Get a feel for the temperature and see what we think. Get a feel for how it will go, how people will react, what people will say, how hard it will be, brace for negative response, and all kinds of other things.
While I am a cautious person, I know there are times I need to just jump in and see how it goes. See if I sink or swim. I have learned some really great lessons over the years in how waiting until everything is perfect or exact isn’t the best path to follow.
I don’t even want to tell you how long I’ve been “working on” this blog. I’ve told myself 100 different stories about why it wasn’t ready, but really it was me who wasn’t ready. I was freely allowing fear to control me.
Is everything awesome and perfect now that it’s launched? Nope! There are new fears consuming my thoughts, BUT, having taken this step forward is propelling me to continue to keep moving. Forward, not backward. It’s giving me courage to just jump in on some other things in my life too. Yikes!
Dealing with depression or anxiety can really put cement in your shoes. Add extra weight. Hold you back. When I was going through the darkness of my depression, even the thought of putting myself out there or doing something that might cause anxiety, was just too much. I had nothing left in me to give to something like that. I don’t even know where the extra I would need for that would have come from.
As I have healed through my depression and moved forward, anxiety has become the monster I battle more frequently. The nemesis on my shoulder. There were many anxious moments as I prepared for this, the launching of my blog and all that would mean. But I took one step forward, and then another and then another.
Moving forward is key. Even if it’s just millimetres or 1% forward, it’s still forward progress and improvement. I would rather take tiny steps forward of just 1% progress per week, which in the end will add up to 52% after one year. How can you tell I paid attention in Math class? That IS progress friends.
Can I share a secret with you? Just between the two of us, right? I have already made so many mistakes since I launched this blog. Tons of them actually. I have done things I wish I could do over. Things I wish I had done differently.
But you know what? I have also learned so many lessons already. Some lessons I never would have learned had I not jumped in. Soooooo one of those lessons was to just jump in.
Can you relate? At least a little bit? Relate with the fear of moving forward or the fear that happens as you move forward. I would love to hear from you. Send me a note or comment below. I would even love to hear your successes. We can learn so much from each other.
Keep going forward friend. We are all works in progress.
I’m cheering you on from the sidelines.
Melodee Glassford 
Very good thoughts
LikeLiked by 1 person