We’ve all done it.
We’ve all engaged in this behaviour for ourselves.
And we’ve all seen first-hand what happens when other other people do it – and perhaps even suffered the consequences of their active inaction.
Assuming we stick with it long enough to reach this critical point, there comes a time in every journey where we know what needs to be done, but we simply can’t find it within ourselves to do it.
When we know that our team is stretched to the limit, and the only path forward is to either radically reduce their workload – or increase resourcing to handle the demand.
When difficult conversations need to be had with clients we can no longer help, team members that no longer contribute, or people in our personal life that we’ve started accumulating friction with.
When practices and protocols that once served us well stop doing so, and now do more to keep us mired in the past than oriented towards the future.
Whatever the reason for our inaction, the end result is the same:
Maintenance of the status quo.
Continuation of current ways of being…
And ongoing commitment to the path they’ve put us on.
For those that seek them, there will always be arguments in favour of delay. Some of them might even be true.
But few of them (perhaps none of them) are useful.
Delaying the inevitable does us no favours.
If we know what needs to be done, but we can’t find it within ourselves to simply do it – then every second that passes without us taking proactive action is another second spent needlessly suffering.
In these scenarios, there’s only one thing we can do – only one thing that’s required to reverse the trend and chart a new course forward…
Act.
Act in spite of our perceived limitations.
Act, even though we feel we’re not ready.
Act. Even though we’d rather not. Because where we are is familiar – and there’s a comfort in that, even in the most uncomfortable of situations.
That comfort isn’t real. It’s an illusion: a consolation prize we’re forced to rationalise & content ourselves with when we avoid the imagined pain awaiting us on the other side of something that frightens us.
We prepare for as long as we need to.
We act as soon as we’re ready.
But our need for preparation and how ready we feel are matters of perception, not something we can objectively measure.
The great thing about subjective barriers is that they can dissolve in an instant when they’re cast in a new light.
It’s possible that what we’ve been avoiding might be the very thing we should be approaching…
And with that perception in hand, we can shift from delaying to finally taking action.
Exactly as we know we should.