STRONGER TOGETHER: The power of saying yes before you're ready

"STRONGER TOGETHER" is a weekly column where Tanya explores key issues. This week, Tanya discusses why growth happens when we say yes before we feel ready, and how confidence is often built through action.

By IMPACT Community Services Managing Director Tanya O'Shea

If I had waited until I felt completely ready, there are many things I would never have done. Not because they were extraordinary, but because they felt uncertain.

Whether it's applying for a new job, starting a course, joining a community group, travelling somewhere unfamiliar, volunteering, ending a relationship that no longer serves you, or beginning a new chapter in life, many of the opportunities that shape us arrive before we feel prepared for them.

Like many people, I used to believe that confidence came first and action followed. Experience has taught me the opposite is often true.

Confidence is rarely something we feel before taking on a challenge. More often, it arrives afterwards, earned through the experience of doing something we weren't entirely sure we could do. The problem is that many of us spend years waiting.

We wait until we feel more qualified. More experienced. More certain. We convince ourselves that when the timing is right, we'll take the leap.

But that perfect moment rarely arrives.

Life has a way of presenting opportunities before we feel ready for them. If we wait until all our doubts disappear, we may miss experiences that could change us for the better.

Saying yes before you're ready isn't about ignoring reality or taking unnecessary risks. It's about recognising that growth often happens in the space between what feels comfortable and what feels possible.

Many of the things we now do with ease were once things that felt intimidating. Driving a car. Starting a new job. Becoming a parent. Moving house. Speaking up in a meeting. Making a new friend.

Capability is often built through experience, not before it.

I've come to realise that self-doubt is not always a signal to stop. Sometimes it is simply a sign that something matters.

The opportunities that make us nervous are often the ones that help us grow. They stretch our thinking, build resilience and reveal strengths we didn't know we had.

I've also learned that perfection can be the enemy of progress. Waiting until everything is certain can mean postponing the very experiences that teach us who we are.

As I have gotten older, I've become less interested in having all the answers and more interested in remaining open to possibility. Some of the most meaningful experiences in life begin with a healthy dose of uncertainty and a simple willingness to give something a go.

So, if you're waiting to feel completely ready before taking the next step, my advice is simple.

You may never feel ready.

Say yes anyway. Because the person who is capable of doing it may not be the person you are today. They may be the person you become by having the courage to begin.