You’ll never feel ready, that’s the point.

The day I decided to change my body, I didn’t feel ready. Out of breath, holding my daughter’s hand on a tube platform, I realised that if the crowd had to run, I couldn’t. My thought was brutal: “If she needs me now, I’ll fail her.” Readiness didn’t save me that day. Action did.

Psychologists call it self-perception theory: we don’t act because we believe, we believe because we act. Each small move sends your brain evidence: “I must be the kind of person who does this.”

Most people wait for confidence to arrive before they start. It never does. Confidence isn’t the invitation; it’s the receipt you get once you’ve already shown up.

When I walked into the gym for the first time, I felt like an intruder. But I did one workout. Then another. By the time I’d lost 50kg, people said I “must have been so ready.” The truth? I never was. I just stopped outsourcing my future to a feeling.

When I was first figuring this out, I leaned on a few simple tools and practices to keep me moving. They weren’t magic, but they gave me proof that action creates readiness. Here are three I still recommend.

Each week, I’ll share 3 things that have genuinely helped me, small shifts across the three pillars of ConfigurSelf: mindset, habits, and health. The kind of things that have made a real difference in my own life, and that I’d happily recommend to a close friend.

When I first put one up, I couldn’t do a single pull-up. Not even close. Just hanging there for ten seconds felt like exposure, like the bar was reminding me of everything I’d avoided. My arms shook, my grip slipped, and I dropped.

But the bar never moved. Every time I walked through that doorway, it was waiting: “One hang. One pull. One try.” And each attempt, no matter how pathetic it looked, was proof. Proof that action was possible before belief.

Science is blunt about it: grip strength is one of the strongest predictors of longevity (Lancet Public Health, 2018). But forget the data. The bar doesn’t care about your readiness, your excuses, or your mood. It just waits in silence, daring you to act.

Here is the one I got from Amazon.

When I first read Can’t Hurt Me, I expected another motivational book, a few quotes, a few stories, nothing that would stick. Instead, it felt like being punched in the ribs. David Goggins doesn’t talk about waiting for the right time. He talks about running on broken legs, about choosing pain over excuses, about proof that action can exist even when belief is nowhere in sight.

The research can’t really explain men like him, but it doesn’t have to. What matters is the mirror his story holds up: readiness is a fairy tale, and pain is the evidence that you’re still in the fight.

You don’t have to run an ultramarathon. You don’t have to tape up stress fractures and keep moving. But reading him strips away the one excuse most of us cling to: “I’ll start when I feel ready.” After Goggins, you know that excuse is dead.

I actually listened to Can`t Hurt Me on Audible; it hit harder hearing it in his own voice.

That morning on the tube platform, holding my daughter’s hand, I realised the cruel truth: if the crowd had to run, I couldn’t. The doors slid open, people rushed, and my body froze. It wasn’t readiness I lacked. It was proof. Proof I could move before I believed.

That moment became my rule. When hesitation creeps in, I picture those train doors closing. Ten seconds. No time to debate, no time to negotiate with comfort. You move, or you’re left behind.

It’s crude, but it works, because readiness is slow, and life isn’t. The Tube-Platform Rule reminds me daily: act first, think after. Because the doors are closing, whether you’re ready or not.

Most of my podcasts start as background noise, dishes, emails, and dinner. But every now and then, something catches me mid-scroll and actually makes me stop. This week, it was this.

If something in this email made you pause, think, or feel seen, send it to a friend who’s been quietly trying to make a change, too.
You never know what might land at the right moment. Link here.

And if you’d like early access to the eBook I’m writing, the real systems, mindset shifts, and habits that helped me lose 50kg and rebuild my health, you can join the waiting list here. “You’re not behind. You’re building, and that takes time.”