This year, half of my work will go into an entirely new program. It’s a series of bespoke enterprise trainings, and I’m creating much of the materials—which I have zero experience in. I’ve been part of workshops and taught courses, but helping the senior leadership of some Fortune 500 scope a blockchain pilot for one of their business pain points? Yeah…that’s uncharted territory.
Of course, I’m not alone. But after the colleague leading the initiative briefed me and set me off, I spent a good few hours staring at a blank canvas. “Okay, hmm, where do I begin?” I had no clue. I realized I lacked a lot of information. I wondered what questions to ask my colleague. I worried about it all day long.
In the evening, I finally turned a corner: “Let me just make some assumptions. We can always change them later.” I’m a maker. So I need to make. To create something I can share and ask: “What do you think about this?” Then, we go from there. Cautiously, I got to work.
I spent several hours writing a 200-word introduction. It wasn’t about the words. It was about me getting familiar with the work. Wading into the waters. And putting brainpower into the project to get it off the ground. In the next session, I made a lot more progress. I drafted stages, gave them names, and began building a proper structure. In the session after that, more progress still. Graphics started appearing. Individual workshop exercises caught my eye from a pool of researched options. Somehow, I was off to the races.
Confidence comes with consistency. If you keep showing up, sooner or later, self-belief will, too. Once you’re an expert, confidence should be the norm, but it doesn’t mean you’re immune to this dynamic. Just that you can have faith going in and then lean on what you already know. For me, that’s books, writing, and the comfort of every draft being a work in progress—and that’s exactly how I began this project. With a book recommendation from my colleague. Writing out ideas until a structure appeared. And then treating the whole document as a draft that’ll inevitable change with time and feedback.
Telling yourself “You can do this” is not the same as believing you’ll ace a hard problem on the first try. “You can get through this if you keep putting time into it” may not sound as inspiring, but it’s how most projects survive. Even so, when they finally slide over the finish line, you’ll likely sit on top of them, enjoying the momentum you’ve built and taking pride in your accomplishments.
