Progress Doesn't Wait For Perfect
Take the First Step
I heard it every day on the field.
“No feet is defeat.”
If you’ve played offensive line or really any sport, you’ve heard that phrase shouted across practice fields and meeting rooms. It sticks because it’s true.
Footwork is everything. It sets your direction, defines your angle and generates your power. From the moment the ball is snapped, your first step determines how the rest of the play unfolds.
When you get it right, you explode off the ball like a train on tracks. It’s full speed, under control and you win.
Get it wrong, and you’re off balance, late to your assignment and putting the entire offense/team in danger.
That mindset served me well for years. It made me disciplined. Demanded precision. It helped close the gap between me and my competition.
But after football, that perfectionist mindset was keeping me stuck.
Perfectionism in Disguise
When I retired, I carried that same belief into life and business:
If I didn’t take the perfect first step, if I didn’t have the right plan, strategy or execution, I’d fail.
So I waited and I hesitated.
That hesitation looked a lot like discipline. But it was fear. Fear dressed up as preparation.
I told myself I was being patient, strategic, smart.
What I really was, was stuck.
Clarity Doesn’t Come From Thinking
When you slow down and tune into your senses, life reveals its lessons.
Instead of filling the room with more noise, listen. Simply observe instead of using our phone.
A teaching moment didn’t come during some strategy session or online guru. It came in my living room.
Our twins are just starting to walk. Every step is an adventure, some forward, some sideways, some straight to the ground. But they always get up. They never stop.
And they aren’t thinking about perfect footwork. They learn by moving.
Same with the youth team I coach. When a kid steps with the right foot, everything clicks. But if he messes up? No big deal, he lines up and does it again.
That’s when it hit me:
The only way to improve is to move.
Doing Beats Perfect
You don’t need the perfect step. You need to take a step.
That shift in mindset changed how I approached everything. Instead of waiting, I took the initiative to regain control of my dreams and I stopped waiting to be ready. I started doing.
Some of my best work came after failing fast and adjusting on the fly. Some of my worst moments taught me more than the “right” step ever could.
Clarity came through action.
Confidence came through reps.
The Real Defeat was Standing Still
In football, hesitation gets you beat.
In life, it keeps you from becoming who you’re meant to be.
I had to unlearn the idea that mastery comes first. It doesn’t. Momentum does.
So here’s my challenge to you:
What step have you been avoiding?
What dream have you benched because the plan wasn’t perfect?
Take one step toward it today. Send the email. Write the draft. Make the call.
Whatever it is, move.
Because while you’re waiting to get it right, someone else is already taking action.
And that’s the real difference between stuck and successful.