Get out of the Waiting Place
The longer you are there, the more time you will waste
“The Waiting Place for people just waiting. Waiting for a train to go or a bus to come, or a plane to go or the mail to come, or the rain to go or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow or the waiting around for a Yes or No or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for the fish to bite or waiting for the wind to fly a kite or waiting around for Friday night or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake or a pot to boil, or a Better Break or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants or a wig with curls, or Another Chance. Everyone is just waiting.”
― Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
I have a good friend who wants to open a clothing store for young women. Jenn has some skills in designing clothes. But all she does is draw pictures of dresses, skirts, tops, and the like.
She even has a name for her store: Jenn’s Dresser. Jan can get a small kiosk for a few hundred dollars rent at the mall. Her friend could be her first employee and they could split shifts.
But she doesn’t want to take the actual leap to open the kiosk. She’s afraid she will fail.
There was a time I used to send her links on how to start a company, how to register your company with the state, get your tax license, etc. I sent her links from Youtube on how to sell your clothes on eBay or Amazon. I know she’s never looked at any of them.
Now I don’t waste my time.
True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one’s true character, to be altogether one’s self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion. — Corliss Lamont
Believe in yourself, no one else will
If you have a goal you want to accomplish, don’t let people close to you, such as your family, friends, coworkers, or others feed into your self-doubt.
Starting small is fine
When I was 17 I wanted to be an investor. I didn’t have a lot of money and I knew very little about investing. So after looking through some finance magazines and studying what I knew, I bought some local stocks with a few hundred dollars. Hawaiian Airlines. Bank of Hawaii. Hawaiian Electric. Owning the stocks motivated me to learn about the stock market.
After a few years, I expanded my portfolio into mostly tech stocks since I like computers and I know something about the industry.
Do new things, learn new skills
You should always try to learn new things and new skills. There are millions of free resources online. I’m watching videos on how to be better at online writing (this is pretty new to me, so thank you for reading). I will probably never have ten thousand followers, but I’m okay with that. If I have one person read this, I’d be happy.
For me, the act of writing is cathartic. If I help someone along the way, all the better.
Everyone’s time is limited, do something now
“Putting things off is the greatest waste of life: it snatches away each day as it comes, and denies us the present by promising the future.” — Seneca
If you have something you’ve been putting off, start small and do something. Anything. Even if you get bored and fail at it, the act of trying and failing is better than not doing anything at all.
In our current world of social media and seeing that everyone has a better life than us, it can cause us to not want to try anything. It’s a lot safer to stand on the sidelines and make excuses for ourselves. We can say that others are better and we cannot do things, we cannot be happy, and we cannot be content.
But in actuality, the sooner you choose to live your life for yourself, the better off you will be and the happier the people that really care about you will become.
I cannot believe that waiting around as life passes you by is what anyone really wants.
Conclusions
- Stop waiting and making excuses to do something for yourself.
- Start small, and be willing to do your research.
- Always be willing to learn new skills.
Get out of the Waiting Place and you’ll be fine.
Good Luck!