I remember standing on a street in downtown Vancouver with 15 resumes in my backpack, trying to convince myself to walk into a spa. I had moved to Vancouver only weeks earlier. I was 23, had one suitcase, very little experience navigating a big city, and absolutely no idea what I was doing.
Now I had to find a job. The plan seemed simple enough: walk around downtown, find spas, and drop off my resume.
But there was one small problem. I was terrified.
My shyness and self-doubt were taking over. Was I good enough? Did I really know what I was doing? Would people judge me? Maybe I didn't belong in this beautiful city after all.
The more I walked, the more overwhelmed I became. Then I stopped and changed the goal. Instead of dropping off 15 resumes, I decided I only had to drop off one. One resume. One spa. That's it.
Suddenly, the task felt manageable.
I found a spa with a French name and, for some completely illogical reason, decided that meant the people who worked there must be nice. Somehow, that gave me the little boost of courage I needed.
And then I stood outside the door. I walked past it. Then walked past it again. And again. I think I probably walked by that door about 20 times before I finally worked up the courage to go inside. When I finally did, I handed my resume to the receptionist and practically ran out.
I was convinced I'd made a terrible impression. But when I got home, there was a message waiting for me. They wanted to interview me. I was shocked!
What I thought had been an embarrassing failure had actually been a success. That experience taught me something I still think about today.
We can be so convinced that we're not good enough, brave enough, prepared enough, or confident enough—and yet the people around us may see something completely different.
Sometimes the story happening inside our own head isn't the story other people are experiencing. And sometimes being brave doesn't mean feeling confident.
Sometimes it simply means changing the goal from “I have to do all of this” to “I'm just going to take the next step.”
I've come to believe that setting ourselves up for success matters. When something feels overwhelming, we don't always need to push harder. Sometimes we need to make the first step smaller.
One resume. One phone call. One conversation. One door.
And who knows? That one small step might lead somewhere you never expected.
What if you're already braver than you think?