Identity
There is a specific quality to the waiting that many women do — not passive, not lazy, but active waiting. Waiting for the right circumstances, the sufficient credentials, the resolution of the current difficulty, the right time, the confirming approval. Waiting, in various forms, for permission.
The permission does not arrive. This is the central fact that the waiting denies. No one is coming to say: now you are ready. Now the circumstances are right. Now you have earned the right to begin.
The beginning happens, or it does not. The permission is yours to give, or it is never given.
Certainty. The feeling of being sure enough, ready enough, confident enough to proceed without the risk of failure. This feeling does not precede action — it follows it.
External validation. Someone to confirm that your idea is good enough, your preparation is sufficient, your right to this territory is established. The validation is sometimes useful as information. As a prerequisite for beginning, it is an indefinite delay.
Better circumstances. When I have more money, more time, more stability, more of whatever is currently insufficient. There will always be more of something to wait for.
The end of the current difficulty. When this chapter is resolved, I will begin the next. But chapters do not cleanly resolve — they overlap, they bleed into each other, they are ongoing. The woman waiting for a clean slate will wait indefinitely.
Beginning requires none of the things we wait for. It requires only the decision to begin.
Not fully ready. Not with complete certainty. Not with all the resources. Not once you have resolved the current difficulty. Now, with what is available, in the direction of what matters.
This is not recklessness. It is the recognition that readiness is built through beginning, not by waiting for it to arrive.
Name what you are waiting for. Specifically. What exactly needs to happen before you will begin? Name the condition.
Ask whether the condition is actually necessary. Or whether it is a protection strategy — a way of maintaining the comfort of not having tried yet.
Take one step that does not require the permission you are waiting for. Not the whole journey — one step. The first action in the direction of what matters, available today, without waiting.
Related: How to Stop Playing It Small · The Mindset Shifts That Change Your Life · On Becoming
Nancy GLO
Reflective storyteller & style curator for women becoming
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