I recently had the pleasure of chatting over coffee with a colleague at work about side hustles. The side hustle we were specifically focused on was public speaking, and the discussion was around how to get started doing it, and ultimately transitioning to getting paid to do it. It was an interesting conversation in its own right; but as I reflected on it more and more after the fact, I realized that I had learned something beyond just how to start speaking publicly.

See, I went into our conversation thinking that the road to public speaking was a long, arduous one; one that only a privileged or well-networked few are destined to walk. What I didn’t realize at the time was that everyone else is probably thinking the same way.

In reality, our conversation around how to get started with speaking went something like this: first, decide where you want to speak. Then, build a pitch deck for yourself that outlines who you are, what you speak about and why you’re uniquely qualified to speak on that subject. Send that to the contact at whatever organization(s) you’ve chosen, and wait for a response.

Annnnd you’re done. Now building that pitch deck well is something of an art form, but the reality is that the process by which someone could get started with public speaking was way, way easier than I had built it up to be in my own mind.

Which leads me to my realization: how many opportunities are missed, how many dreams wasted, for no other reason than the fact that we’ve built them to feel unattainable in our own minds? How often do we willingly lock ourselves in a glass prison, when all that’s needed is to shatter our current way of thinking?

The next time you find yourself making excuses or trying to talk yourself out of doing something, I challenge you. I challenge you to shatter that glass prison you’ve built, and see what’s really possible. Is what you’re dreaming of doing really that hard, or have you just built it up in your mind so that you can forgive yourself for not pursuing it?

Life’s too short, and we have too many real barriers, to be losing time to artificial ones we’ve built for ourselves. I’m gonna go work on my pitch deck now. What will you do?