Familiar with the motivational phrases ‘start now’, ‘start before you’re ready’ and ‘take the leap of faith’? Variations on these sayings have been popping up frequently for me lately (thanks Instagram) and as fun as they sound, as inspiring and compelling as they are these messages had been niggling away at me (which is unusual because I love inspirational quotes, including when they come from Instagram) and early this morning I finally realised why.
My epiphany was not that these sayings were obsolete, not that they we silly or wrong but that they failed to address one big important question. What is preventing someone from starting now? I am not talking about the exact, precise context and situation dependent reasons each individual does not start this or that. I am talking in broad terms because the underlying issue that holds us back can often be placed predominantly into one of two categories and its placement within these categories is what determines if we really should ‘start now’ or rather what kind of stating now this needs to be.
1. Mindset is your level of self-belief, confidence and trust in yourself to achieve the outcome you want in this area. We have all at one time or another been held back by fear and self-doubt in a situation where we really could have added value by acting and it is this experience of unnecessary insecurity which such ‘just start’ quotes speak to. However, what is not included in these quotes is the equally or even more important issue of…
2. Skillset is your competence. You see, sometimes it certainly is your mindset needlessly holding you back but sometimes there is good reason, and this is when you don’t have the competence because if you don’t have the competence you should be holding back (until you do).
To a degree everything we do requires developing the skillset along the way. However, there are times when ‘figuring it all out along the way’ should not be a viable option and today I want to talk about one such area that is close to my heart and that is when it comes to working with the health of other human beings.
Confidence Does Not Equal Competence
When it comes to working with the health of others no one, no matter what their life experience or what they believe qualifies them to do so should ever start treating another human being before they have the formal education and truly developed their skillset to do so. If we ignore this the potential for damage is too great because no mindset, no matter how empowering and no matter how good the intentions and passion driving it can compensate for a lack of skillset.
We all have the profound ability to help others, we all want to help others and we are all in positions to remove some of the pain or make the lives of other people more wonderful yet to attempt to do so or to claim you can do so in a therapeutic sense without first investing in your own formal education and skillset is negligence.
It’s no secret we’re bombarded with health and nutrition information from all angles, there is literally no avoiding it. We ‘know’ this is a problem because we ‘know’ there’s loads of useless and damaging information out there, we ‘know’ we’re only supposed to take the advice of credible people and not buy into the crap. In fact, we’re regularly warned not to take just anyone’s advice. But it is completely left up to us to ‘know’ (decipherer) who is just anyone and who isn’t… How on earth are we supposed to know what’s legit and what’s not!? (Especially when those touting x health messages are so passionate and convinced themselves…). Therefore, rather than leaving it up to the complete responsibility of the ‘consumer’ to ‘know’ what information is good or not I want to encourage us all to make health care a joint venture.
The first step of this is for those of us who are looking to share health messages to recognise the limits of your understandings and it is up to you to bring this up to the place it needs to be before you share with others. There are far too many stories of people jumping in passionately sharing x, y or z health and nutrition advice as gospel only to discover later through the damage they cause to themselves that it wasn’t in fact ‘healthy’. What’s forgotten or slips by unknown is the damage caused to others who’ve followed this wonderfully passionate and compelling advice along the way.
We owe it to ourselves and others as humans to treat one another with respect and dignity and to me this very much means equipping ourselves with the competence to help before we ‘help’ because health is not an opinion.
Taking on a role of providing health advice to others means you accept an enormous responsibility and you must be educated and skilled to be of true help. If you’re not prepared to put in the investment to do so then please be their friend, offer support and encouragement as this is invaluable but do not naively fool yourself or them into believing you hold their answers. The intent to help must be there but it does not alone, always mean you can.
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
Do you want to be a great health carer and truly change people’s lives? That doesn’t come from diving in and promoting any bit of health advice you’ve heard is good. It comes through education, it comes through practice, it comes through commitment and lifelong development. If you are motivated to work with the health of others you must do more than care, you must invest in yourself and in develop the skillset to earn such a privileged position because when you choose to work with the health of others you choose to work with the lives of others.
Starting before you are ready and learning alongside the people you are trying to help is more than unfair on them it is careless and your potential to cause harm is enormous. You simply don’t know what you don’t know and when it comes to health what you don’t know does cause damage. If you are in the position of or want to be in the position of providing health advice to any other person, it is your responsibility to develop the necessary skillset first.
The Real Meaning of ‘Don’t Wait Until You’re Ready, Start Now’
‘Start now’ does not mean giving people your health advice tomorrow because the world does not need more of this. The world does not need more conflicting and confusing health ‘information’. The world does not need another person insisting we try (or try harder) the very same or a variation of the same thing a dozen others have told us and which we’ve failed a dozen times. The world needs resolved people who have invested their time, money and energy into developing not only their knowledge but their self.
Don’t drag other people into your confusion or opinions (again no matter how pure your intentions) until you have well and truly advanced down the road of developing your skillset. Did you know it is those who are most passionate and most pushing one extreme over another that have been shown to be the least informed and have the least understanding. It is when you can explain both sides (or in the case of health many, many sides) that you know you can be of help.
Some non-negotiable steps along this road to becoming someone of value in advancing the health of others include a formal education in the area you are wanting to work, an in-depth understanding of human behaviour, psychology and physiology, mind-body interactions and it also means you have developed your own intellectual and emotional intelligence and are aware of your limitations, motivations and ‘issues’ and a willingness and wanting to advance these for the rest of your career.
One Question to Change It All
Mindset or Skillset?
When looking to start anything ask yourself this one question ‘Is it a mindset or a skillset problem that is holding me back from beginning now?’ The answer you give will determine your next actions because a lack in either does not mean don’t start it simply means you start from a different place.
If it is a skillset issue holding you back start by acquiring the skills you’re lacking, start by investing your time and money in your formal education because if you are not qualified to be treating a health issue then until you are, don’t.
On the other hand, if you have the skillset and it is your disempowering mindset preventing you from using these skills then by all means also start now but start in a different place. Start now by enlisting the help of a coach or mentor with whom you can develop an empowering mindset and fully step into your position to help because to let your ability to help go unrecognised would be a terrible loss in a world that needs people like you.
Parting Words
I understand, I truly do, how compelling those inspirational words to ‘just do it’ are but please take the time to invest in yourself so that you can offer more than another opinion or temporary fix because life is longer, more beautiful and far more meaningful than those quotes on Instagram would have us believe.
If you are going to have others place their most valuable asset, their health, in your hands make certain you have developed the mindset and the skillset to meet their needs. Whichever one it is that requires development for you (or both) ‘don’t wait, start now’.
With my whole heart I trust you found this information useful and inspiring
Become Great. Live Great.
Bonnie.
