What Are You Waiting For

Do you have a dream or a desire or a habit that you want to change? But you've been sitting on it and you haven't? 

In this blog, I’m sharing about a common question I ask clients, “What are you waiting for?”

You have something a dream or desire a habit that you want to change, but you're not. Why are you doing it? What the problem is causing now that you're not doing it? What you're missing out on and what you can actually do to get moving? 

This is what I'm going to be exploring today. 

(Sidenote: Doors for She's Goaled 2.0 are open right now. It's your speed course to reach your goals. A six-month program to give you coaching and mastermind support, and a group of like-minded women to help you reach your goals.)

What are you waiting for? 

I coach people. I have powerful conversations with people I meet. As a speaker, I chat with people in the audience. 

What I've been finding is people very often want to do something. 

• They want to write a book.
• They want to leave their job.
• They want to start a business.
• They want to sell all their belongings and go travel the world.
• They want to try a new hobby, like drumming, or mountain biking, whatever it may be.
• In their business, they might want to launch a program, or even just leave the workforce to spend more time with their children. 

But they just don't do it. 

If it's a habit, then it's something like…

• getting up early
• reading more books
• going for more walks
• maybe it's a passion, where they want to learn carpentry or do painting. 

Whatever it may be, the question I want to just scream out is, “What are you waiting for?” 

Sometimes I have to ask myself that tough question, too. 

• What am I waiting for? 
• When there are things that I want to do, why am I not doing it? 
• Why isn't it happening?
  

Ask yourself these questions:

• Are you waiting for someone to come and tell you to do it? 
  • “Quit your job.”
  • “Start a business.” 
  • “Go travel.”
  • “Start drumming.”

• Are you waiting for an opportunity to present itself? Where all you have to do is say, “Yes”. But the opportunity hasn't come. ​
  

• Are you waiting for the perfect plan? ​
  
  • “When these things are all in place, then I'll be able to do it.”
    
  • “Well, I started wanting to do this, but the opportunity is done this way. Therefore, it's not for me.”
    

When you're in that place of not doing something that you really want to do, you're telling yourself…

• you're not worthy of it
• you're not capable of it
• it's not to be in your life

The saddest thing is when people get too old or too struck in responsibility or lack of that they're just not able to do it. 

There are different people I meet who eventually have mobility issues, health issues, or a loved one was taken too soon, and they don't get to realize the things that they really wanted when they were younger or healthier or really desired it from the beginning. 

So what are you waiting for? I'm going to say that many, many times in this blog. 

The psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from taking action towards your goals

There might be some psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from taking action towards your goals.  Maybe you want to do this big trip, but you just don't have the financial means. Maybe you want to quit your job, but you're the sole breadwinner, and it's pretty scary to think about leaving your job to have the lack of stability in your finances.

I get that. I get that you might have health issues that are stopping you. But there's always one way or another to do it or a modified version of the original desire. 

Let's really figure out what are the psychological or practical factors that are stopping you from doing what you want. 

Maybe it's a lack of clear goals: When you don't have those specific, achievable goals, it can feel like you don't have any direction, any focus, and then you lose motivation. If you have clear goals, you're going to have a roadmap and reasons to act. 

But if you don't have clear goals, you're going to suffer from overwhelm. You're going to be overwhelmed by how big the task feels. Most of the time, it's just an unknown factor. 

I didn't know what it would be like to write my first book and publish it. Now, no problem. Hand me something, and we can bang out a book in a few days sort of thing. It's not an overwhelming feeling now, because I've been able to know the scope of the actual project. 

But you might feel overwhelmed because you have poor planning, you have unrealistic expectations or even a lack of prioritization. You don't have clear goals and a clear plan, so you feel overwhelmed. 

Habitual Inertia: Maybe you're also trying to take it all on yourself. Now, if it's around habits, you may be afraid of change or kind of opposed to change. Something called habitual inertia where you stick to these familiar routines, familiar habits, even when they don't serve you, because it's easier than changing. 

For me, it's like, I'm not a morning person. Well, maybe if I just got myself to bed earlier then I could get my butt out of bed in the morning. 

Is it really who you are? People say, “Oh, I'm not a planner.” Well, could you learn how to plan? Because you've learned a lot of things in your life: to be able to eat and walk and dress yourself and have good hygiene. There are a lot of things that you've been able to do. 

I get the change. It does require us to give some effort. Sometimes change also means we don't know the outcome. But really, we also don't know the outcome of reaching a wonderful goal, desire, or habit that we want to make better. Isn't it worth the effort if we know that there's going to be some sort of payoff? 

Poor Time Management: Another reason why you might not be going to do what you wanted to is you're prioritizing everything else instead, and you have poor time management. Let's be honest. If you're playing games on your phone, if you're watching Netflix, if you're kind of pushing papers around, checking out social media, maybe that's why you don't have time to do the things that you really desire. 

Other things that are causing you to have poor time management, like procrastination, that's maybe another reason why you're not going for it. You're delaying tasks that need to be done. You're putting them off. Maybe it's because you have no motivation. 

Maybe it's because of another reason like you have a fear of failure: Is that what you have? It could be. When you have a fear of failure, you don't even want to try it. Or worse when you have perfectionism, you don't want to finish it. You put all that work in, but you won't finish because it's not going to end up the way you imagined it.

But the sad thing I see is that people don't spend the time or invest the time to figure out, “What is stopping me? What am I waiting for?” My clients that come to me and I ask them this question, bravo, amazing. They're exactly where they need to be because they're getting the support to get the awareness. 

Understanding the reasons, the barriers, and the obstacles, is the first step in overcoming them. Awareness is key. As soon as you have the understanding that this is a psychological problem that you're dealing with, you can then address them. You can then focus on them and be able to have some practical strategies and mindset changes to be able to get through it. 

What you can do

I don't want to just give you the problem and point this out in your life without some action items. Really, I'm hoping I stir something in you because I'm sick of seeing people living in black and white, living in a place where they're not where they want to be. They don't have joy, and they've lost their spark. 

I want you to have what you've been waiting for. But to have it now. 

First, figure out, “What's the thing that's stopping me?” Maybe it's the list that I've shared. Maybe it's something else. Having a session with a coach like me can really help to pull out the true answer here. 

The next thing is, once you've figured it out, I urge you find someone to support you through this. It could be a coach or a counsellor. You need some accountability to be able to move forward. Seek support.

What you can do is just take one small step. Figure out what's the desire, the habit, or the thing you yearn to have be different or to have in your life, and then come up with what's the very first step. Once you know what the first step is, and you know 150%  can go for it and achieve it, then just commit to that, and do that.

Then at that point, you're going to gain confidence and motivation, which are actually two other pieces that could be holding you back and causing you to wait for what you want and to wait for going for what you want. 

I challenge you, as you're reading this, to be thinking, “Okay, what is that first step?” Get some clarity on that first step, and reflect on, “What is stopping me?” 

I'd love to hear love to hear from you. What is the thing stopping you? Is it procrastination? Is it perfectionism? Is it a lack of resources? Is it…

• low confidence
• lack of motivation
• not having clear goals
• you're overwhelmed
• habitual inertia
• poor time management

I'm glad I wrote these down because there are so many of them, and there are more. These are just some of the main ones that I see. I don't want for you to be in a place where you say…

• “If only I did…” 
• “I wish I could have...” 
• “I can't believe I didn't...”

You have an opportunity to realize what you've wanted and to not wait for it anymore. Let me know in the comments or shoot me an email [email protected]. Share with me the thing that you've been waiting for. What is the thing that's been holding you back from getting it? What is the first step that you're going to take? 

Again, doors are open for She’s Goaled 2.0. I encourage you to jump in and have us support you in reaching your goals, desires, habits, and dreams that you've been wanting. Because you'll have the accountability, you'll have the coaching support, you'll have the group's mastermind support, and you'll have timed actions so that you can move forward. 

That's really what I want for you. Because you are brilliant and you have great skills and talents and the world needs to see more of it. You need to be able to invest in yourself so that you can have the life, the business, the career, the family, and all the areas of life to be how you desire them to be. 

Until next time, stay dynamic. 

Read my other blogs:

1. 3 Things I Do After a Big Talk
2. 3 Main Things to Look for in Collaborative Book Opportunities
3. Stop Giving it ALL YOUR POWER!