Nobody’s Going To Honk For You! (Waiting For Permission, 3 of 3)0

(This post is part 3 of 3 posts on waiting for permission. You can read Running A Red Light here, or check out Green Lighting Others here .)

I remember the day was really hot. I was first in a long line of cars waiting for a worker holding a stop sign to flip it and let us through the road construction. It was so cozy warm in my (non-air-conditioned) Jetta, and the wait so long, that I fell asleep! Soon I awoke to a chorus of honking and the guy with the sign yelling, and with a quick shift into drive (and a little embarrassment), I was off.

But nobody is going to honk for you. I mean, they might. But really, if you are waiting for someone to kick you into gear, it might never come. And then what? The light is green – the only person with their foot on the brake is you.

What keeps you back?

• Waiting for a perfect life? Right now my wife goes to work five days a week while working on her teaching degree – with four kids at home plus involvement in ministry. We knew that there was not going to be a perfect time to do this. It would involve a season of sacrifice, hard work, and flexibility. It’s good to be wise about when and how you approach your dreams, passions, and goals – but if you’re waiting for everything to be perfect before you begin you will be sitting at a green light for years.

• Paralyzed by the unknown? It blows me away how many worst-case scenarios we can create in our heads. “What-if _________________” (fill in the blank with whatever is paralyzing you). So think it through. Make a plan. Get advice from people you trust. Do research. And after all of that, there might still be unknowns! That is why so many great things have not been done – they remain in the safe place of the cerebellum.

• Afraid of failure? Are you going to be okay with failure? It’s not fatal. It can be a great teacher. And it’s going to happen at some point. For those that are unwilling to let go of their dreams, they are inevitable.

• Afraid of success? What if you take off? What if you succeed? Can you handle that? Mediocrity is a safe place; actually doing something and succeeding makes you a target of critics. But don’t worry; They will usually shoot at you from the land of mediocrity. Just get out there.

So go for it. Life will never perfectly line up, you won’t know everything there is to know, you might fail, scarier still, you might succeed. But nobody is going to honk for you. The light is green; just go.