When You’re Waiting for Everything to Be Perfect First

Or Have Bills Paid Off. Or Until You’re Married or Find the Perfect Tufted Ottoman at HomeGoods or are 20 Pounds Lighter and a Lot Less Stressed.

A study* of 31,000 employees across America found that job security was a major driver for employee retention.

46% of HR leaders said that burnout is responsible for half of their turnover.

What does this say?

People rarely get the security they want.

Which begs the question…

Is job security really a thing?

When your horrible boss texts you at all hours with another hair brained idea or an “urgent” matter they need you to address on your scheduled day off…I wonder.

When your hard work is credited to your boss and there’s not even a whiff of appreciation (not even a sad post it note of thanks) in the air…I wonder.

When you feel like your #1 job is NOT to be seen nor heard…I wonder some more.

There’s little comfort in a work life that drains you of everything that makes you come alive…and sharing 8+ hours a day of that life with Milton and his pet stapler doesn’t help.

And, if out of a shared water cooler frustration, Milton did what you wouldn’t and set the place on fire, you’d be out of a job.

Like I said, where’s the security?

When you think about it, the alternative – self employment – is a lot more secure but most people don’t believe that for two reasons:

1. because they’ve never done it before and haven’t developed the competence to feel confident they can – an easy fix considering the tools and technology available today.

2. they’ve done it before, had a bad experience and are gun shy because no one wants to repeat failure.

My advice is simple…

DIVE INTO THE DEEP END.

Waste no more time waiting for things to be perfect first – they won’t ever be perfect.

Or until you have bills paid off – you’ll always have bills.

Or until you have a spouses income for a safety net, your house is in perfectly appointed order, you drop a little weight (don’t get me started!) because the time is never perfect.

Life isn’t perfect which means there’s no such thing as “perfect timing”.

The only time you’re promised is today, right now.

And the only things you can control are what you do with that time.

You’re smart, capable and your ability to bounce back from well, anything, is stunningly impressive.

Believe in THAT.

Don’t believe everything you THINK because your mind will tell you the water’s too deep, you can’t swim or you’ll drown…

…until you stand up and realize, the water barely touches your knees.

*Willis Towers Watson