In this episode of the Pivot & Promotion Podcast, I’m tackling another common question that comes up during coaching: “What if I’m not ready yet?” or “Maybe it’s just not the right time.”
We tell ourselves this all the time — when we’re about to make a change, chase a goal, or take a big leap. But here’s the truth: there’s no such thing as the perfect time.
This episode is for anyone who’s been waiting for the stars to align, for things to calm down, or for that magical moment when everything feels just right. Let’s unpack why waiting for the “right time” often holds us back — and what to do instead.
Listen to the episode here: Coaching Q&A Series: What If I’m Not Ready Yet?
There’s No Perfect Time — Just the Time You Choose
When you catch yourself saying “it’s not the right time,” pause and ask: what does “right time” even mean?
Is it about having more experience, more savings, or more confidence? Or is it really about fear — fear of failing, of being seen, or of stepping outside your comfort zone?
Most often, it’s not time that’s stopping us — it’s the stories we tell ourselves about why we’re not ready.
My Story: Moving to New York Before I Was “Ready”
After college, I was living in Arizona, working in sales, and feeling like I was stuck in a bubble. I visited New York for a weekend and instantly knew I wanted to move there. But then came all the doubts:
What if it’s not the right time? What if I’m not qualified enough? What if I can’t afford it?
Eventually, I realized something important: time isn’t guaranteed. Waiting for perfect conditions would only cost me more time and more experiences.
So I took action before I felt ready — and that move changed everything.
You don’t need perfect timing. You need clarity on what you want and the courage to take a step toward it.
Fear and Perfectionism: The Real Reasons We Wait
When you say you’re “not ready,” it’s often your brain trying to keep you safe.
It tells you to stay where it’s comfortable, familiar, and predictable — even if that means staying stuck.
Then perfectionism joins in, whispering that you need every detail figured out before you act:
The website has to be perfect.
The timing has to align.
You have to solve every problem in advance.
But perfectionism isn’t preparation — it’s protection. It’s your brain trying to prevent future disappointment by avoiding any risk at all.
The problem? That kind of protection keeps you from progress.
The Cost of Inaction
Here’s what most people forget to ask: What is the cost of waiting?
When you keep saying you’re not ready, you lose time, momentum, and confidence. You stay in the same patterns, repeating the same thoughts — and before you know it, another year has passed.
Progress doesn’t require perfection. It requires imperfect, consistent action.
Every small step you take builds clarity. Every experiment teaches you what works and what doesn’t. You can adjust and refine as you go, but you can’t grow without movement.
The Beauty of Early Action
Some of my clients have taken small, imperfect steps that turned into massive transformation.
One client wanted to move to a new state but kept waiting until she felt “ready.” Instead of pausing her growth, we identified small, doable actions — visiting the new city, reaching out to locals, and talking to others who had made similar moves.
Those steps made the dream feel real — and eventually, she made it happen.
Taking early action doesn’t mean rushing. It means trusting yourself enough to start.
Why Coaching Helps You Move Forward
When perfectionism, fear, or overthinking take over, it’s easy to get stuck in your own logic loop. That’s where coaching can make all the difference.
A coach helps you separate fear from fact, call out the patterns that keep you stuck, and design actions that align with your goals. Coaching gives you the accountability and perspective to move forward — even when your brain says you’re not ready.
Growth requires courage. Coaching helps you find it.
Key Takeaways
There’s no perfect time — just the time you choose.
Waiting for the “right moment” often hides fear or perfectionism.
Fear and perfectionism protect, but they also restrict.
Your brain tries to keep you safe, but real growth happens outside your comfort zone.
The cost of waiting is high.
Inaction keeps you stuck and delays your goals. Progress begins with small, imperfect steps.
Coaching creates clarity and momentum.
A coach helps you identify what’s holding you back and supports you in moving forward with confidence.
Timestamped Overview
00:00 – Introduction to the “What If I’m Not Ready Yet?” episode
01:00 – Understanding the myth of perfect timing
02:00 – Dani’s story about moving to New York before she felt ready
04:00 – How fear and perfectionism hold us back
06:00 – The real cost of inaction and staying stuck
07:00 – The power of early, imperfect action
08:00 – How coaching helps you take aligned, confident steps forward
09:00 – Final reflections on growth and readiness
Want More Support?
Explore additional resources and tips on my website or connect with me on LinkedIn for insights into building your network effectively.
- Website: https://www.danitan.com
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dani-tan
Read the podcast episode transcript below.
Read the full episode transcript
Dani Tan: [00:00:00] Welcome back to my coaching Q and a mini series where I tackle common questions and misconceptions about coaching. I typically get asked these questions or these misconceptions come up and I'm giving my take perspective and answers to them. And so for our next one that we're going to talk about is what if I'm not ready yet? You know, what if it's not the perfect time? When is the right time? I'm just, I don't know. Maybe it's just not my time right now. And so let's talk about time. I have a big thing about time, um, personally, but I understand when you're like, what if it's just not the right time? the perfect time. Uh, what if I'm just not ready? I don't know. So let's talk about time because it's valuable.
It's important. It's precious. And so the things that will come up when it comes to this thought, believe question, I always think about it in the sense of who is speaking when you say, what if it's not the right time? And what is the right time for you? So the question I would ask you [00:01:00] would be what is the ideal time for you when it comes to change? What is the ideal time when it comes to growth? What is the ideal time for you when it comes to? Achieving what it is you want to achieve. So I always think about what are examples that you have of past times you have attained a goal, you have learned something new, you have grown in some capacity. If you think back to past examples, What did you have in place in order for those things to happen?
How were they the right opportunities, times, or moments for them to actually be executed? So for an example for me that I can use is when I had graduated college, I was living in Arizona and I was working in sales. And I knew that I wanted something the next step, but I didn't know what it was yet. And so I had visited New York for a weekend and I was like, okay, I definitely want to move to New York, [00:02:00] but you know, I don't know what the right time is. I don't know what the right time is. I don't know what the right time is in my career. I don't know what the right time is when it comes to having the right amount of prerequisites in order to move there to make this pivot happen, to make this big jump of one moving states, two moving careers, because I knew that I wanted to work in retail in some capacity.
And how will I know what the right time is? And so. The thing that I had realized was that time is not of the essence, like I don't have a luxury of time. I could sit here and wait for the right moment, for the right levels of experience, for the right opportunity, but then I would just be losing time because the big thing for me at that moment was, I knew that I wanted to have bigger experiences of living in a city. That had, you know, different people from all over the world that was super global, very transit versus living in Arizona. I felt kind of like I was living in a bubble that I was recreating my college experience, but now as an early professional, and I wanted to have some new experiences.
And so, for me, the thing was, I want [00:03:00] to experience this now. In this time versus waiting five, six years, and I have like missed my early mid twenties when I could be living in this new, environment. So I was like, time is not of the essence. Even if I'm not ready, I'm going to try. And so I would say that there is a big myth about there being the perfect time. I think what comes up is our Either our fears, our fears will start to, creep in and say, well, you can't do it yet because you don't have this experience or you can't do it yet because it's going to be expensive or you can't do it yet because it's not safe or you can't do it yet because you don't know anyone. And so I think there's a myth about perfect time.
And I think really it's about like our fears creeping in, um, our fears creeping in our brain, trying to rationalize. And it's because we are comfortable of where we have always been. We're comfortable. We're comfortable in what we have always done and where we've always been. Our brain has been wired to feel safety in what is familiar, and that's okay, but when you are ready [00:04:00] to take this big step into something new, you're going to step out of the comfort zone. You're going to step out of the safety zone. And when that happens, our brain starts to come in and tries to create safety and rationalize and tell us, no, no, no, we should stay here because of X, Y, Z. Because it's safer because it's familiar because it's secure.
and so the thing that I would say is like When will there be a perfect time? And so I think also that the part that can creep in is this perfectionism of, I want everything to be perfect when I launched this website. I want everything to be perfect when I launched my business. I want everything to be perfect when I asked for this promotion or I go for this negotiation or when I finally booked this trip. But the perfectionism is creeping in too. The perfectionism is trying to protect you from some past experience where something did not pan out the way you wanted it to. And so now it's trying to protect you by saying, well, if you execute all these things and you think about all the worst case scenarios and you solve for all of them in advance, then when it happens, it'll be easier.
it'll be, less drastic, less severe, nothing bad will happen. [00:05:00] And so that perfectionism is creeping into of telling you, wait for the perfect time, think of all the things that could potentially happen and solve for them in advance before you execute. So that way, when you do execute, you are safe. And none of the bad scenarios will happen. And so I just think it's, you know, things to think about is what is the perfect time? What is the ideal scenario? What are times that you have taken a risk a chance before and how did they pan out and start to realize that in reality, when perfectionism or fear are the real things that are creeping in and holding us back from being ready or from taking action, you know, what is the cost of that?
So the next piece is, you know, what is the cost of inaction? What is the cost of constantly holding and waiting and being stuck at the same pattern and the same cycle? You are just stagnant, right? And so to know that taking imperfect action is at least action in progress, moving you forward and that we are not looking for perfection, life and [00:06:00] business, all of it is an experiment. It's all experimentation. But in order to continue to progress. You're going to have to take a step. And so the allowing yourself to think that you are not ready, you are not ready, is just holding you back and allowing those other pieces to take over in your mind and to take over the conversation of what is that you want to do.
And I think that there is actually some beauty in early action, taking action, even if it's small action. So that way you can start to experiment and see what's working, what's not working for you. And so some examples of, you know, some clients who have taken early action would be, you They knew that they wanted to move to a different state. They were like, I'm done with this state. I want to go to a new state. but they were like, I don't know if I'm ready. I don't have the right experience in these roles. I've never been to the state. I'm not even sure if I can make it happen. And so for that, the first conversation was like, Versus saying, you're going to wait to get started and to work towards your goals and to work together on coaching, why don't we figure out ways that you can take small steps of action.
You've never been there. let's make sure that you go visit it, or, you know, [00:07:00] you want to make this big jump into this new industry, then let's find people who have had similar jumps as you, who've also moved states, you can talk to, so I can start to create a reality of what is possible. And so I just say the not ready yet. It's not the right time is truly something else. That's taking over and speaking for you of what it is that you really want. and I think that for me, I am definitely a recovering perfectionist. I always thought that everything had to be perfect. I definitely grew up in environments where. I was always hypersensitive to everyone's emotions, to what could potentially happen.
It's why I'm an insanely great problem solver and strategic partner, because I can typically see the foresight of the different paths of what could happen. But with that, there is to my detriment too, when you're a really great problem solver. And you can see the holes in things. You also are continually like catastrophe planning. You're like planning for the worst for all the different things that could potentially happen, but that can also keep us stuck and can keep us frozen. And so it's knowing how to adjust that appropriately when you're trying to [00:08:00] achieve something new and to have the support to have it. So when someone says to me, you know, Oh, I don't think it's the perfect time to go after my goals or to do coaching, or I don't think I'm ready yet.
I'm always like, okay, so, you know, what is the ideal scenario for you? What would make you feel good? What would make you feel ready? And if you're not ready, why do you feel you're not ready? And what part do you feel like is creeping in? Is it you're rationalizing? Is it fear? Is it fear of judgment? Is there a perfectionism? What is creeping in? And if there's nothing, that's great. But I think it's just about like sitting and reflecting on that piece, which is going to help you figure out how to take action and to move forward. Because even after with the coach, or if you have a partner that you're working with in general, you want to be able to identify when that pattern comes up for future things that you want to achieve.
Well, let's be real y'all. Like being someone who is in the personal development growth space is not for the faint of heart. We are constantly trying to challenge our norms and what is, our capacity [00:09:00] to expand and to grow and to try new things. And so this will be something that we'll continually battle in all shapes, whether it is building your business, whether it is your marketing, whether it is your family, whether it is, Moving, whether it is, negotiating, this will always be a constant thing that comes up. If, am I ready? Is it the right time? And so knowing how to, address that and support it is really crucial, which is a big thing that I do in coaching. All right. So this is this session and I will catch you in the next one.
