So finally, after more than a year watching videos, I finally decided that it was time to listen to the advice to try and diversify my income stream by repackaging my activity books to sell on Etsy. When I finally decided that it was time to open my shop, it was not because I was ready and waiting with dozens of products ready to upload. At the time I only had half a dozen packs that I thought where ready and waiting. Instead I decided that it was time because if I did not make the move now, I might never make the move at all.
I realized that after months of watching and planning, I had gotten comfortable with watching and planning. With hundreds of videos on You Tube talking about Etsy, it was becoming very easy to say, I need to watch a few more videos before I make a decision to do this or that. And to push the decision off to a more convenient time because I had no clue what I was doing or what I was getting into.
The problem is that like learning to swim or drive, you can only learn and understand so much by sitting on the sidelines and watching others. You can watch a hundred videos on creating the perfect listing or ensuring that you have flawless SEO, and think that it all makes sense, until you are the one standing on the diving board looking nervously down at the water. In that instant it is so easy to postpone the decision for a better time when I had watched a few more videos, made a few more products, or felt no pain.
With my chronic health issues I was finding it way to easy to postpone opening my shop because I felt miserable. Like writing this post, I was always looking for that mythical day when my iron leve was just right, when I was free from migraine, when I had no pain, and full of energy. Every day I would wake up fully intending to make this the day, open my computer, then overcome by the fatigue and pain I would close my laptop and hope that tomorrow would be better. The problem is that tomorrow was never better. There was always some new stress to drive up the fatigue and the pain, some new information that I needed to process, and some busy work to keep me searching for that perfect day to start my shop.
After more than a year of watching videos, creating list of potential shop names, making list of what I would like to sell in my imaginary shops, and other filler work that would forever keep me busy without getting me a step closer to opening my shop, I realized that it was time to make a decision. I could spend the rest of my life waiting for that perfect moment when I would have the perfect number of listings and my health was just right, or I could except the fact that on this earth, the perfect moment will never occur. And if by chance it should come, it would probably be over before I even realized that it was there. Like it or not, my health, money, and time are always going to be an issue. And if I kept waiting for the perfect time, I would wait forever.
Like it or not, if I was ever going to start my Etsy shop, I was going to have to have to move out of the comfort zone of dreaming and planning, and jump into the cold water and actually open a shop. It was not going to be the most successful start, with dozens of sales my first day and making tons of money within a few months. But then again, a slow starting shop is thousand times better than an imaginary shop that can only make imaginary money.
So if you are thinking of opening an Etsy shop, of becoming a KDP self-published author, going to school, or making some other important step, remember that the perfect day to take the first step to making your dream real is today. Because if you wait for the perfect day that you picture in your head, there is a good chance that you will spend a lifetime waiting.
So make today that perfect day, and take the first step to transforming your dreams into a reality.
Click here if you would like to check out my new Etsy shop.
Here are a few sample pictures of one of activity packs.
If you would like to start your own Etsy store, click here to get 40 free listings for your brand new store>
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