Do you ever catch yourself saying, “I really want to do [insert beautiful goal, dream, vision, passion, etc.], but I’ve got so much going right now in my life. It’s just not the right time.”
But is that true?
Is it “not the right time”? Or, in fact, is this the best possible time?
Earlier this year, I got an email from a woman named Frankie. She was miserable at her job. She wanted to quit and launch her own company and finally be self-employed—a lifelong dream of hers. She asked if I’d be her business coach. We began our work together.
Over the next few weeks, a series of bombs exploded in Frankie’s life. First, Frankie’s daughter got diagnosed with cancer. Then, there was a custody battle (involving one of Frankie’s grandchildren) and Frankie had to dive in and help her family navigate this ordeal. Several other things happened, too. It was one stressful event after another.
In Frankie’s position, most people would say, “This is the worst possible time to launch my own business. I’ve got too much going on at home. Let’s forget about the business, for now. Maybe I’ll focus on that later, once things settle down.”
What’s interesting is that… Frankie had the opposite perspective. Frankie felt like, “Now, more than ever, THIS is the moment to quit my soul-sucking job and finally pursue my dream.” She wanted the flexibility that self-employment brings. She wanted the freedom to set her own schedule—so she could step away from her desk and accompany her daughter to a chemo appointment at 2 pm on a Tuesday without needing to ask a manager for permission. And if she was going to spend 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week away from her family, then she DAMN WELL wanted to be doing work that she loved.
And she did it. Frankie launched her coaching practice, lined up plenty of clients, and within a matter of months, her income was just as high—higher, in fact—than it had been at her previous job.
Recently, Frankie told me, “I use to wake up at 3 am feeling anxious because I hated my job. Now I wake up at 3 am because I’m so excited and full of ideas that I can’t wait to share with my clients.”
(Happiest news of all: her daughter is recovering and doing great and going with me to Italy!)
I’ve done thousands of coaching sessions with clients over the last almost 12 years. I’ve heard (literally) thousands of people say, “life is so crazy right now,” “the timing is not ideal” and “maybe later once things settle down.”
What I’ve come to realize is that life is always “crazy” for some reason or another and things never really “settle down.” That magical moment when everything is in “perfectly in order”… it doesn’t exist. There’s always going to be something erupting in your life. It might be cancer. It might be a strained ankle. It might be a kid who’s having a meltdown because they got rejected from their top college choice. It might be a spouse who’s having a mid-life “who am I??!” life purpose crisis. It might be seasonal allergies. It might be mildew in your basement. You get the idea. There’s always going to be “something” that you could use as a “reason” for not taking action to pursue your dreams.
You can spend the next fifty years telling yourself, “it’s just not the right time.”
Or, like Frankie, you can decide, “this is absolutely the right time.”
What happens next—in the story of your life—depends on which of those statements you decide to believe.
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