Waiting for the time to be right and finding peace

There’s something to be said about waiting for the time to be right. Sometimes you must wait to have enough capital to start, you may be just caught up in a busy time of year with your job or school. Or maybe this time in your life just isn’t right.

But at some point, when things become physically possible, you must just start. And oftentimes, things are possible right now. There’s no point in waiting until Monday to start a new habit, no point in waiting until the top of the hour to begin a task, and no point in limiting yourself until there’s a golden day to start the next chapter of your life.

Sometimes it’s a leap of faith, faith in yourself.

This is admittedly something that is one of, if not my worst, struggles in life. Having faith and trusting in my abilities. It has led me to be hesitant, indecisive, unconfident, and very stressed, among many other negative feelings.

So, maybe I of all people shouldn’t be the one to tell you to take the leap of faith and bet on yourself as soon as possible, but maybe my struggle makes me all the more qualified to do so.

Winston Churchill said, “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.” Similarly, Nat Friedman said, “pessimists sound smart, optimists make money.”

Now, I understand that sometimes what you desire isn’t truly locked behind just belief. But, maybe it is.

I once heard that belief is a doubt concept. Because belief lacks certainty. It is simply hedging probability. It falls back on the principle of how much would you risk if you knew you were unable to fail.

Everything.

If you knew that what you were doing had a means to an end. That all of your hours of hard work, all of your financial, physical, and mental losses would someday result in tremendous growth, you would truly risk it all.

So when I say that what you want is truly gated simply behind your belief or lack thereof, what I’m saying is if you truly wanted something and knew that you would succeed you would figure out how to make it possible NOW.

If your dream is to be a national geographic photographer, but the camera equipment costs too much, or you simply lack the skills, or you may not be able to pay rent. But you not only believed but knew that you could do it and that it would be worth it in the end.

You would take out loans from whoever would give them to you for equipment and coaching, and you would practice and learn and perfect your craft relentlessly until you became what you wanted to be.

You may even decide that you can’t afford to pay rent so you sleep on someone’s couch or in your car. You would find a way to chase your dream.

And if what you’re doing now doesn’t burn that passionate fire in your soul to pursue it at all costs, you may not be in the right spot. If you spend your mental free time escaping your current reality, maybe it’s time for a switch-up.

But if you wait for this switch-up until next week, next month, or next year, it will only be a dream somewhere out in a distant, non-existent future. This idea of manifesting your destiny is real. But if it is only a thought, and it doesn’t eat you up enough from the inside out, maybe it wasn’t meant to be.

David Goggins describes this idea of not becoming what you’re capable of when you someday face God. That he will read to you a list of what you could have been. But instead, you sold your dream for just enough to spend your life pushing paper.

Now this lifestyle is okay for so many people. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with being completely satisfied being part of a team or an organization and doing your part to help the team succeed. That is a completely rational thought and is nothing short of healthy.

But for those of you who want to pursue something else. I encourage you to do so. Today.