are you ever totally paralyzed at the idea of starting something that you want or need to do? I’ll always be a Tom Petty fan, and while I do agree that the waiting is hard I must argue that it’s the starting, and not the waiting, that is in fact the hardest part.

today’s post is about how to get started before you’re ready, and why it’s my big resolution this year. I thought a lot about the best way to explain this resolution, and it turns out that the following LA driving metaphor seems necessary:

I moved to LA 10 years ago and had to pretty much learn to drive all over again here. If you’ve ever driven in LA, you understand that this is a nightmare.

What I discovered very quickly during my baptism by fire learning to drive like an adult in Los Angeles traffic was that people driving in LA seem to all follow an unspoken rule of the road that no one told me about, and I like to call that rule: Just Start Going.

People legitimately just. start. going. Wherever, whenever, they just begin the process of going into the lane they want without regard for anyone or anything around them. Forget about using a turn signal, because no one will let you into their lane if you even so much as indicate that you need to get over.

This, obviously, is terribly dangerous and inconvenient when you grew up in a place where everyone waves ‘thanks’ at even the smallest of kind road sharing gestures. In Ohio, where I grew up, people go above and beyond to help each other out on the roads, so this was an adjustment for me. The guy giving you the finger and tire-screeching past on the 405 is a far cry from those days.

While Just Start Going is an incredibly shitty approach to driving, I started to think about it as a more general rule. What if people just started going in other aspects of their lives, and not just on jam packed freeways? What if that rule applied to all the stuff I was scared to do but desperately wanted to try?

I have always been the type of person who has a list a mile long of stuff I wanna try or ideas I want to share or dreams I want to go for, but can easily get paralyzed by the fear of screwing it up and therefore obsess over researching it into the ground before I even dip my toe in.

It can be something as small as wanting to try that new spin class in the neighborhood, but putting it off for weeks because I'm not really sure if I'll be good at it, and what if I look stupid, and remember I didn't even make the 7th grade volleyball team, and I'm not even sure if there's PARKING and I'm freaked out that i might not find a spot and I'll miss the class. Ridiculous, I know.

But it happens to me with the smallest of things as well as the biggest of things. It took me forever to sign up for a French class because I was nervous I'd sound dumb and mess up the words. And I don't even know how long I waited to reach out to certain writers and producers I was dying to work with for fear that they'd blow me off or I wouldn't write a good enough song with them once I got my foot in the door.

But what if I just said f*ck it and Just Started Going?

It's really become clear to me in the last few years that Just Start Going is kind of the only way to move forward in your life and toward your goals, especially if you're like me and obsess over doing tons of research before trying something to reduce the chance of failing as much as possible.

There are just never any guarantees, and there never will be. We can drive ourselves insane trying to mitigate the risk of something for months only to get there and have a curveball thrown at us and realize we wasted tons of time worrying.

Now obviously, the right kind of preparation is never a bad thing. Of course we want to set ourselves up for success and be smart about how we prep ourselves for important meetings, trips, and new things we're trying. But at some point, I think we all have to accept that if we wait until we're totally ready, we'll be waiting forever.

It's uncomfortable and the voice of your comfort zone will be screaming at you in the back of your head to stop and wait just a little longer for the right day, but the trick there is that your comfort zone will be screaming forever and that day will never come. I promise you.

all photos by the amazing Kayla Coleman photography

If I really think back on my life and try to come up with a list of the most pivotal and meaningful moments, all of them were the result of me sucking it up and deciding that I was gonna Just Start Going.

I was TERRIFIED to play my songs in front of people. To the point where my dad had to sneak into my room and listen to the songs I had recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder that he got me. Naturally being 15 at the time I was super angry that he went through my stuff, but it helped me get to a place where I could start before I was ready.

I was NOT ready to play those songs in front of people. The songs themselves were far from perfect (and by far from perfect I mean I'm super embarrassed by them now), my stage presence could best be described as painfully awkward, and I toured the country for my first hundred or so shows in my parents’ teal Toyota Sienna. But it got me onstage for the first time, and every time after that got a teeny tiny bit easier.

Just start going to the class. or the auditions. or the city. or the gym. or the therapist. or the studio. or wherever it is that you need to go to take that next small step in the right direction to get you closer to your dream. Just Start Going FOR IT, whatever it is.

Do you have any big resolutions this year??

How To Just Start Already And Go For It: My Resolution