Latest / The Talent Brief / The Cost of Waiting
Transcript
- Jeff Ganter: Welcome back to the Talent Brief. I've been sitting with something lately. It's a question that's followed me through more conversations than I can count over the past few years. Some were my own, some were with coaching clients, some came from watching people stand at the edge of a decision they already knew they needed to make. The details were always different. But the pattern kept showing up. And it left me wondering. Not why we make the wrong decisions. Why do we wait so long to make the right ones? I don't think most of us wake up one morning completely surprised that something isn't working. Most of the time, we already know. We know the job isn't right. We know the relationship has changed. We know we're exhausted. We know we're settling. The signal showed up a long time ago. So why do we wait? I don't think it's because we're confused. I think it's because we're negotiating. Not with other people. With ourselves. And if we're really honest with ourselves, we're incredibly good at it. Maybe next month. Maybe after this project. Maybe I'm expecting too much. Maybe it'll get better. And before we know it, weeks become months. Months become years. What's interesting is that we usually don't spend all that time looking for the answer. We're looking for permission. Permission to disappoint someone. Permission to change our minds. Permission to leave. Permission to want something different. But here's the realization I've been wrestling with. What if permission isn't coming? What if the signal was permission? When I look back over my own life, I realized the hardest decisions weren't the ones I got wrong. They were the ones I already knew were right. And postponed anyway. It wasn't because I didn't know. Because the script sounded more responsible. Stay loyal. Push through. Don't quit. Be grateful. Work harder. Those scripts aren't necessarily bad. Some of them helped us become who we are. But because they can also keep us from becoming who we're meant to become. Lately, I've been thinking about something else. I don't think the highest cost is making the wrong decision. I think it's spending years waiting to make the decision you already know knew was right. That's the cost we rarely calculate. It costs time, energy, and confidence. Sometimes relationships. Sometimes opportunities that never come back around. The signal usually isn't what hurts. Living out of alignment with it does. Waiting is what makes it expensive. Okay. One last signal. Maybe the question this week isn't what decision do I need to make? Maybe it's what am I still waiting for when I already know? Sit with that. Don't rush the answer. Just notice what comes up. Because sometimes the most important decision isn't finding the signal. It's deciding to stop negotiating with it. Until next time, I'm Jeff Ganter. Remember, trust the signal, question the script. Bye.