Waiting until you’re ready feels safe, but it’s failure in slow motion

Your best ideas have an expiration date. Act before they expire!

Original image by Ron Lach via pexels. Modified by Author.

Back in the early stages of entrepreneurship, I was bright-eyed, bushy-tailed excited about starting my own business. I loved the idea of working for myself, owning my own time, and working on my terms.

No more corporate drama.
No more layers of approval before I could take action on my idea.
No more sacrificing my golden years on building someone else’s dreams.

It was MY turn now.

So I dived right in, trying to learn all about becoming a coach.

I signed up for all these programs, got a couple of coaching certifications, and hired business coaches to help me figure it all out.

I went through iterations of researching, mapping out approaches, refining my messaging, and making sure I had the perfect setup before launching.

Even if I launched, I was so timid about sharing it widely.

I put all my hopes in “build it and they’ll come”… and it was met with crickets.

Sometimes I’d see a little traction, but it felt painfully slow—especially compared to those who seemed to skyrocket overnight.

I thought it wasn’t “good enough”, so I repeatedly went back to the drawing board. I tweaked my approach. I debated different ways to position myself or my offer. I studied what others were doing and wondered, “Maybe I should try that instead?”

I told myself I was being smart, strategic, and intentional. But in reality?

I was stalling.

But deep down, I wasn’t waiting for more clarity or better strategies.

I was waiting to feel ready.

Waiting for the right moment, the right plan, and the right level of confidence to come to me.

…and that moment never came.

I thought all this prep work and learning was going to make me ready for what I wanted to do.

But the more I thought about it, the more pressure I put on myself, and the more I felt like a failure. Sometimes, it’d feel hard taking more action because I would get into this “why bother” or “none of this is working” mode.

I was stuck in an endless loop of overthinking, second guessing, and pivoting strategies.

Then one day, after getting burned out and frustrated from all the doing, all the chasing, and exhausting seemingly all the possibilities, it finally dawned on me that… No amount of thinking or churning behind the scenes was going to make you feel ready.

You probably don’t think of yourself as “stuck.” Researching, strategizing, planning, and refining all feel productive. But if you’re being honest, how much of that work is actually moving you forward?

So if you’ve been:

• Consuming more than you create—reading, watching, and taking notes, but never implementing.

• Starting and stopping—getting excited about new ideas but never following through long enough to see results.

• Questioning every decision—constantly tweaking your approach or waiting for the “perfect” moment…

Then read on. Here’s what you need to know to kick indecision and analysis paralysis to the curb.

The real reason you keep delaying progress

The inner Disruptor Analysis Paralysis Inaction has been eating up all of your highly productive mental bandwidth by making you believe that the reasons are external:

• "I just need more time to figure this out."

• “I need a better strategy before I start.”

• “I don’t have the right tools or resources yet.”

So the obvious solution seems to be setting up more tools or gathering more info—learning from others, weighing all the options, and thinking through possible scenarios.

But deep down, Analysis Paralysis Inaction isn’t about needing more clarity, having a better plan, or doing it better.

The truth is… you’re scared that your next move won’t be the right one.

You don’t have a decision making problem.

You don’t have a strategy problem.

You have a trust problem.

You already know enough, but you don’t trust yourself to make a decisive, firm choice and follow through with it.

Instead of believing in your ability to adapt, pivot, and learn through action, you’re trying to engineer certainty before you even start.

This is why decision making feels daunting.

You’re not just choosing a path—you’re trying to eliminate all possible risk. And since that’s impossible, you put it off.

But certainty isn’t a prerequisite for action. It’s a result of it.

You find the right answers through action.

You build confidence in your decisions by taking action and adapting as you go.

Stop trying to eliminate all risks and start trusting yourself to figure it out.

Because you can.

The real strategy: Learning through doing

You don’t need more time to think. You don’t need another strategy. You don’t need another course.

You need more trust in what feels right to you, start before you feel ready, and stick with it long enough to get actual results.

If you keep chasing more strategies and pivoting too soon, you’ll never know if that approach could’ve worked for you.

It’s not about recklessly rushing into things. It’s about embracing those smaller, lower risk action steps so you can build real confidence instead of waiting for it to magically appear.

Try these 5 actionable steps instead:

1. DO A QUICK VISION ALIGNMENT TEST
   Before you commit to a new strategy, evaluate whether it aligns with your business vision and ideal work lifestyle. “Play it forward" by running a mental simulation of what it would look like executing that strategy for years on top of what you’re already doing. Then ask yourself: “Does this move you closer to your goals or derail you?” and “Does this excite you or drain you?” If it aligns, decide on a tiny, low risk action step to test it out. If it doesn’t, move on.

2. COMMIT TO A LONGER TIMEFRAME TO GATHER MORE DATA
   Commit to testing a strategy for a set period, such as 60 days or 3 months, before deciding whether it works. Get through that initial learning curve phase to develop a better sense of its effectiveness and whether or not you enjoy it. In other words, slow the f down and focus on consistency over pivoting.

3. SET A DECISION DEADLINE
   Give yourself a hard deadline to stop researching and make a choice. Be sure to create clear conditions or measurable metrics to gauge its effectiveness by the deadline. Evaluate on the date of your deadline as to whether you want to continue. Steer yourself from any temptation to pivot or stop before the deadline.

4. LAUNCH “GOOD ENOUGH” AND ITERATE FROM THERE
   Instead of trying to get everything perfect from the start, launch something that’s “good enough” (70-80% there), get real world feedback, and tweak accordingly. Don’t work in a silo, perfecting something no one sees. Focus on smaller iterative phases. Transform it from a “just a theory” into “proven results” by getting feedback from your audience.

5. REDEFINE FAILURE AS FEEDBACK
   Stop treating mistakes as proof you weren’t ready. Instead, see them as data, helping you refine, improve, and grow. Failure isn’t bad. It’s just a part of the process to help you figure out the right solutions for you.

Act like a curious scientist conducting an experiment.

Nothing is guaranteed, and everything is a test.

Take action, gather data, and adjust. That’s how you create progress.

Create the momentum you want

Your fear of taking action has never been about a lack of knowledge. It’s been about believing you need certainty before you move.

But what if the real answer has been in front of you this whole time?

What if confidence, clarity, and success aren’t things you wait for, but things you create through action?

What if the problem was never what to do next, but it’s curtailing your habit of pivoting before you give it the chance to work?

You can’t think your way into certainty.

You can’t research your way into confidence.

You can’t plan your way into progress.

The only way forward is to trust yourself.

Move with purpose. Adjust as needed. Keep going.

The breakthrough you want is waiting on the other side of action.

P.S. If this helped quiet the overthinking and reminded you that momentum starts with action, tap the 💜 as a sign you’re choosing progress over perfection. Share or restack to support someone else who’s been holding themselves back while waiting to feel ready.