We all collectively seem to have this tendency of waiting for things to align or waiting for the perfect time for us to do something that we want to, or that we need to do.

We seem to wait until something else happens before we take the action that we need to take.

Yes, there will be times when things are out of our control.

COVID and lockdowns are great examples of that. They completely wrecked my globetrotting plans.

But there are also a lot of times when we impose that limit or that delay on ourselves.

Self-Imposed Waiting Times

A really, really good example is when you get to the end of the year, around November, or December time, and people decide they’re just going to wait until January or after Christmas to start a new diet or start a new training plan or start eating better.

Or another COVID example, “I won’t really train or won’t work out until gyms reopen again.”

Or maybe something like, “I won’t give myself that break I need from work until after this busy project is over.”

There might be times when that delay is justified as well.

Maybe with that busy project at work, for example, you’re in the zone. So you’re doing your best work and taking a break or giving yourself that recovery is going to actually be more disruptive than actually carrying through.

Why Are You Waiting?

But it’s always worth asking yourself what there is in your life that you’re holding off on doing because you’re waiting for something else to happen.

And then ask yourself why.

A lot of the time, there isn’t necessarily a really strong reason for that.

Especially if we’re looking at an action that is going to be beneficial for us or help us feel better.

Something like improving your nutrition or being more active – your body’s going to start to appreciate that right away.

You don’t need to wait until after a certain point. Your body will start to react to that immediately.

Maybe you’re putting something off because you are dreading the experience.

Maybe past experience of doing something similar is playing on your mind and maybe those past experiences sucked.

Maybe there’s some fear or some worry. Sometimes that’s a good thing because it means that you are starting to challenge yourself and trying to step out of your comfort zone. That’s not a blanket rule, but sometimes that can be a good sign.

Or maybe it’s something that’s really difficult to reverse or maybe even permanent in which case it very much depends on the specifics of that thing.

Taking Irreversible Action

But if it’s something that you’re going to need to do anyway or are fairly sure you’re going to regret not doing is the anxiety and stress of waiting for that to happen, or for that to be done better than just actually going ahead and doing it?

That’s something that you have to weigh up yourself.

That’s something very specific to you.

In my case, I’m getting ready for the consequences of a big decision that I’ve made recently.

And I’ll start to see those consequences imminently.

It is something that’s permanent and irreversible. And the thought of it does still give me a lot of anxiety and it’s something that’s been on my mind for years.

But it’s also something that I’m 99.9 to probably 100% sure I’ll regret not doing one day if I don’t go ahead and do it.

So I realized that it’s something that I’m going to do anyways. And it’s something that there’s probably never a perfect or convenient time to do.

Overcoming Fear And Anxiety

Rather than letting my fear or anxiety sneak in as an excuse to not get it done or to keep putting it off until some arbitrary future date, I decided to dive in and make that decision at the pretty much the first available opportunity.

Given how much our lives have been disrupted since 2020, I feel like I’m kind of done with waiting until.

And hopefully, in the right situations, you are too.