Stop Waiting for the Perfect Time: Favourable Conditions Never Come
Sep 27, 2026
I was listening to a podcast recently and they said something that made me think: “Favourable conditions never come.”
The point they were making was that there will always be something competing for our time and attention. Work gets busy. Family needs us. We worry about what’s happening in the world. We get ill. We recover. Something unexpected happens. And if we’re not careful, we can spend our whole lives waiting for one distraction or problem to disappear before we finally get on with the things we really want to do.
It made me realise how often I do this. I tell myself that, at some point, I’ll have the time and energy to get to the real stuff. When work quietens down. When this problem is sorted. When life feels a bit easier. Then I’ll do it. But when is that, exactly? Looking back, there has always been something going on. The something changes, but it never really goes away.
Maybe I’ve been looking at it the wrong way. Maybe the messy bit in between isn’t something I need to get through before I take the leap and do the thing I keep putting off. There will always be something to work through, worry about or sort out. Hopefully not the same things! I don’t think that’s negative. I think it’s just what life looks like. And I guess if I stop expecting a magical point when everything is sorted, I can stop waiting for it.
Waiting for everything to be perfect before I start is unrealistic. I can try something new before I feel ready and take small steps towards the dream in my head, even with everything else going on. I suppose the bit I need to work out is how to make room for those things in my actual days, instead of just telling myself I’ll get to them one day.
I think sometimes we look at people who have achieved something and imagine they had something we didn’t. More time. More confidence. Fewer problems. Better circumstances. Maybe some of them did, but I suspect a lot of them just stopped waiting. They wanted something badly enough that they pursued it even when the conditions weren’t ideal. They found the time amongst everything else. They started before they felt ready. They kept going when life got complicated.
Because the alternative is to keep saying "when". When the children are older. When work calms down. When I have more money. When I feel more confident. When I’ve sorted myself out. When life is less stressful. And suddenly another year has gone by.
Of course, there will be times when we genuinely need to stop. Sometimes life throws things at us that have to take priority, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. But I think there’s a difference between choosing to pause because you need to and permanently postponing the things that matter to you because you’re waiting for life to quieten down.
So maybe the question to ask yourself isn’t, “When will the conditions be right?” It’s, “What can I do with things as they are right now?” You don’t have to wait for everything to fall into place. You can start with something small, even with all the other stuff going on.
Because favourable conditions may never come. And you don’t want to spend your life waiting for them. 🩷
