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"I wish I had done that sooner."
I can't tell you how many times I've heard this statement.
I wish I had changed jobs sooner. I wish I had started my side hustle sooner. I wish I had hired an assistant sooner. I wish I had invested in my career sooner. I wish I had acquired those skills sooner.
Sooner.
Everyone wishes they had started sooner on that thing they had put off for so long, but why don't we act when we initially have the idea?
Usually it's fear; sometimes it's timing, but most of the time it's overcoming our own mental objections and roadblocks that we create in our heads.
The funny thing is, once we finally do the thing, it usually feels a lot less scary than it did while we were thinking about it. The job change happens. The business gets started. The assistant gets hired. The class gets taken. The conversation gets had.
Suddenly, the monster we built in our head turns out to be a lot smaller in real life.
We spend so much time trying to create the perfect conditions to begin. We tell ourselves we’ll start when work slows down, when the kids get older, when we have more money, when we feel more confident, when we know exactly what we’re doing. The problem is that perfect conditions rarely show up. Life just keeps moving, and that thing you keep saying you’ll do eventually keeps getting pushed another month, another quarter, another year.
There’s also this strange belief that waiting somehow makes us more prepared. Sometimes it does. Most of the time, though, we’re just delaying the learning that only happens once we start. You can read about building a business forever, but eventually you need a customer. You can study leadership all day, but eventually you need to lead somebody through something hard. You can think about changing careers for years, but eventually you need to have the conversations that make the move possible.
The truth is, you’re probably never going to feel completely ready. You may feel more informed. You may feel more comfortable. You may have a better plan. But there will almost always be some level of uncertainty attached to doing something new. That’s part of the deal.
I think this is why regret hits so hard. We look backward with information we didn’t have at the time and wonder why we waited so long. We can see how manageable the risk actually was. We can see how much we learned. We can see the opportunities that came from finally moving. From the other side, the decision looks obvious.
That doesn’t mean you should make every decision immediately or chase every random idea that pops into your head. Some things deserve patience. Some decisions need research. Some risks are stupid. But there’s a difference between being thoughtful and hiding behind preparation because you’re scared to begin.
So think about the thing you’ve been saying you’re going to do. The job you keep talking about leaving. The project you keep wanting to start. The person you keep meaning to call. The skill you keep saying you need to learn. Maybe you don’t need another six months to think about it. Maybe the version of you a year from now is already wishing you had started today.
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