279: What are you waiting for?
Keeping your options open sounds like wisdom. Most of the time it's postponement.
Nobody questions it. It sounds considered and even mature. But patience without a plan isn't strategy. It's just 'waiting' with better branding.
Patience can be strategic. When it has an endpoint. Holding off while you gather specific information. Waiting for a real signal before you commit. You know what you're waiting for.
Most people don't reach that point. They live with an open-ended "not now" that quietly becomes the default.
Some career decisions will never force your hand. You can hover indefinitely and it looks responsible from the outside. Considered. Not rushing.
Meanwhile, nothing moves. Here's the question that cuts through:
What needs to be true for you to decide?
If you can answer that clearly, you're being strategic. You're waiting for something real.
If the answer keeps shifting, or there is no answer, you're not waiting for a signal. You're avoiding the discomfort of choosing.
So create your own forcing function. Pick a date. Name a condition. Give yourself a real deadline, not "when the time feels right."
Smart patience knows what it's waiting for. Comfortable avoidance just waits.
What needs to be true for you to stop waiting and decide?
My simple framework will help you make the decision.
The Stuff
- How to be disciplined, even if you're lazy
- Will your job crush your soul?
- The Napoleon Technique for Productivity
- The Thinkweek Playbook
- Habits of High Achievers
- Work Life Balance won't save you. Boundaries will.
Finally. Peaklet. A ranking game written by one of my readers - thx Kevin!
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