The Next Edit - Issue # 60

The Hardest Person to Get Permission From Is Yourself

🧠One Big Idea

One of the things I’ve noticed about people standing on the edge of a big life change is that they spend a lot of time waiting.

Waiting until the market improves.

Waiting until work settles down.

Waiting until the kids are older.

Waiting until they feel more confident.

Waiting until they’re absolutely sure.

We tell ourselves we’re waiting for the right time.

But often we’re waiting for something else.

Permission.

Permission to slow down, to choose differently. To leave a role that we’ve outgrown. to stop chasing goals that are no long important to us now. Permission to redefine success.

The interesting thing is that no one else can give us that.

Your financial advisor can tell you that you have enough money.

Your spouse can tell you they’ll support you.

Your friends can tell you you’ll be fine.

But eventually, there’s one person whose permission matters most.

Yours.

I’ve coached people who had every practical reason to make a change and still couldn’t take the first step.

Not because they weren’t ready. Because they hadn’t given themselves permission.

Sometimes courage doesn’t look like making a dramatic leap.

Sometimes it looks like saying,

“I’m allowed to want something different now.”

That single sentence can change everything.

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🛠️Try This

Complete this sentence:

I’ve been waiting for permission to...

Now ask yourself:

Who am I waiting to hear it from?

If the answer is “myself,” perhaps it’s time to start listening.

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📋Andrea’s List

Signs you’re waiting for permission:

• You keep saying, “Maybe next year.”

• You already know what you want but continue collecting more opinions.

• You’re hoping certainty will arrive before you act.

• You’re living according to someone else’s definition of success.

• You keep postponing a conversation you know you need to have.

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✂️The Final Edit

Sometimes the next chapter doesn’t begin with a plan.

It begins with permission.

Permission to change.

Permission to grow.

Permission to choose differently than you would have ten years ago.

The hardest permission slip you’ll ever sign may be your own.

See you in “the next edit”

Andrea

Photo by Giu Vicente on Unsplash