What are You Waiting for?

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #019 here.

Have you ever felt inconvenienced by needing to schedule personal appointments like a routine doctor’s appointment, a car service, taking care of things around the house, or taking care of something for your partner, parents, or children?

I remember feeling so busy that I didn’t have time for these types of things. And if it were something that I really needed to be done right away, I would often do it with a feeling of resentment and annoyance.

I remember thinking:

‘I’ll get to it in a few months because I don’t have time now.’

Yet a few months would come around, and nothing had changed.

And if it were something for me, I often would say to myself:

"Next year is when I’ll find time for me."

I still have a busy life. It’s not that I am a totally relaxed, chilled-out person who has a lot of time on my hands.

What’s different now is that how I spend my time is very fulfilling and feels much more balanced.

I had to start choosing differently so that my life would change and I would feel better. And the new choices were not big things. They were usually about a lot of small things, and just one at a time.

Heck, even the big choices boil down to a lot of small choices—or at least that’s the way to choose the big stuff; you’ve got to choose the small stuff first.

If you are waiting to make those new choices, what are you waiting for?

Are you waiting for the right time?
Are you waiting for your kids to be at a certain age?
Are you waiting until the new year?
Are you waiting for a sign?
Are you waiting for someone to save you?

In reality, are you really even waiting for anything?

Or is it that you don’t know how to change your patterns?

Now that I understand more about how our brains work, I really get how hard it seems to break our habits because every change we make, every new choice, shows up internally—especially to the survival part of our brain—as if we are stepping out of our comfort zone and heading into a life-threatening danger zone, even when the changes would make us happier.

I also have learned that if you’re willing to try some new things, if you’re willing to be wrong, if you’re willing to practice new things—one tiny step at a time—you can rewire your brain to choose differently.

I did it, and so can you.

Earlier this year, I saw one of the most clever and concise social media posts that my business coach, Sigrun, posted when she was about to close the doors on a program she offers once a year. It said: One day or day one?

It’s ok either way—there’s no right or wrong—it’s a choice.

Remember that waiting for anything is a decision you are making, and you may want to check in on the reason behind it.

Oftentimes your survival brain is confused, and in trying to keep you safe, it’s actually keeping you from something that could help set you free from your old, unhealthy habits.

“If not now, then when?”

– Hillel the Elder, Jewish religious leader, sage, and scholar

🎧 👉 Prefer audio? You can also listen to me share about this in podcast episode #019 here.