A foot in the dark—
Not knowing if ground exists,
Still, it takes the step.
There was a man I used to see at the jazz club. Not like the others—the regulars who came for the music, the ones who sat in the dim light, lost in the sound. No, this man was different.
He always stood near the bar, half in, half out. He watched the band, but never fully listened. He’d lift his drink but rarely finish it. He looked like someone always on the edge of a decision, someone waiting for a sign, someone convinced that if he stood still long enough, clarity would arrive.
But it never did.
He never spoke to anyone. Never stayed until the last song. Never fully left, but never fully stayed. And I wondered if he lived his whole life that way—one foot in, one foot out, hesitating just long enough for every moment to pass him by.
Some people think that waiting is thinking. That delaying a decision is the same as making the right one. But the world does not reward those who hesitate.
It rewards those who step forward.
Commitment vs. Overthinking
Most people think the safest path is waiting. They don’t move until they are sure, don’t speak until they have the perfect words, don’t act until they feel ready.
But certainty is an illusion.
- You don’t know if the idea will work until you start.
- You don’t know if the person is right for you until you choose them.
- You don’t know if the risk will pay off until you take it.
But hesitation? Hesitation guarantees one thing: nothing happens.
The man at the bar thought that by waiting, he was avoiding failure. But in reality, he was living it.
The World Moves for Those Who Move
Look at the ones who shape their own lives—the ones who get what they want, who build things, who move forward. They all have one thing in common: they commit.
They do not stop to endlessly weigh their options. They do not ask for guarantees before they begin. They believe in something and act on it.
- The musician who plays badly at first but keeps playing anyway.
- The entrepreneur who risks money they don’t have, not knowing if they’ll succeed.
- The writer who writes the first page, even though it isn’t perfect.
They step forward while others are still thinking. And that’s why they win.
A melody played with hesitation is still music. A life filled with mistakes is still a life that was lived.
Overthinking tries to create a perfect future. Commitment embraces the messy, uncertain, beautiful reality of the present.
The tea will never be poured if you are afraid of spilling it.
The song will never be played if you are afraid of missing a note.
The life you want will never be yours if you are too afraid to reach for it.
Lessons in Following Through
- Hesitation is failure in slow motion.
- Action creates clarity—waiting does not.
- No one who ever built something great was “ready” when they started.
- Belief is worthless without movement.
- Life does not wait for those who hesitate.
One night, I saw him again—the man at the bar. The band was playing something slow, something deliberate, something that made you want to close your eyes and drift into it.
He didn’t.
Instead, he glanced at the door, at the band, at the people around him. And then, just like every other night, he set his half-finished drink down and walked out.
The next night, he wasn’t there.
Maybe he had finally made a decision.
Or maybe, for the hundredth time, the decision had been made for him.
life 
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