Stop Waiting to Feel Qualified

There's a moment you keep waiting for.

The moment you'll finally feel
qualified.
Ready.
Like you actually belong here
and aren't just getting away with something.

I'll save you the wait.
For most people,
that moment never really arrives.

The competent people you admire?
Many of them still feel,
some mornings,
like they're not quite enough.
They just stopped
letting that feeling
make their decisions.

Feeling qualified
is not a prerequisite
for being qualified.

The two aren't even
that closely related.
Plenty of people feel confident
and aren't ready.
Plenty feel like frauds
and are excellent.

So stop using the feeling
as your signal.

You don't need to feel qualified
to apply, to speak up,
to take the seat,
to do the work.

You need to be willing
to act
while the feeling
catches up later —
and it does catch up,
but only after you act,
never before.

Stop waiting to feel ready.

Go be it,
and let the feeling
arrive when it arrives.

– Asael Shinder