Active Waiting: Maybe You’re Not Stuck. Maybe You’re Being Prepared.
When things get hard, we all respond differently.
Some people retreat.
Some become workaholics. Others stop doing much of anything. Some throw themselves into distractions or unhealthy habits. Some pray. Some work out. Some take better care of themselves, while others stop taking care of themselves altogether.
And then there are those who eventually learn something different:
How to keep taking one step forward while allowing what comes next to reveal itself.
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because I have a lot on my plate right now.
But strangely, it doesn’t necessarily feel like too much.
It feels more like I have a bunch of things sitting near the finish line.
Or maybe a better way to describe it is that they’re all waiting at the door to the next level in this giant video game called life.
Some things are moving.
Some things are clicking.
And some things are sitting in this strange standstill where the message I keep getting is simply:
Be patient and wait.
Ugh.
Not exactly my favorite instructions.
But here’s what I’ve learned about waiting.
I don’t believe that when God tells us to wait, He means we should do nothing.
I don’t think we’re supposed to sit around like we’re 20 people deep at the DMV, pull out our phones, scroll ourselves to death, and hope eventually someone calls our number.
I believe there is such a thing as active waiting.
What Is Active Waiting?
Waiting doesn’t mean doing nothing.
Waiting means not forcing what isn’t ready while continuing to prepare for what might be.
That’s a very different thing.
Being still doesn’t mean becoming stagnant.
Being still means quieting yourself enough to recognize what actually deserves your next move.
Letting go doesn’t mean giving up.
Letting go means releasing your death grip on exactly how, when, and where you think something is supposed to happen while continuing to participate in your own life.
There is a big difference.
And for someone like me, that’s been a lesson.
I’ve never been particularly good at doing nothing.
My personality, my wiring, my life’s purpose, whatever you want to call it, has always been wrapped up in movement.
I like forward motion.
But I’ve had to learn that forward motion doesn’t always look like crossing a finish line.
Sometimes Forward Motion Is Preparation
Sometimes moving forward means preparing.
Sometimes it means learning.
Sometimes it means healing.
Sometimes it’s making the phone call.
Taking the class.
Building a relationship.
Writing the thing.
Starting the project.
Taking care of your body.
Or continuing to show up for something that isn’t producing the outcome you expected yet.
And sometimes forward motion actually requires you to stop pushing so hard and allow something to unfold without trying to wrestle it into existence.
That’s been a hard one for me.
Because when we want something badly enough, waiting can feel like failure.
We start questioning everything.
Maybe this isn’t right.
Maybe I misunderstood.
Maybe I should quit.
Maybe something else would happen faster.
Maybe everyone else has figured this out except me.
But what if the waiting period isn’t only about getting what you want?
What if part of the waiting is about becoming the person capable of handling what you want when it arrives?
Sometimes We Quit During the Waiting Period
I’ve watched far too many people walk away from ideas, businesses, relationships, dreams, and opportunities because they hit a waiting period and simply got sick of waiting.
And I understand it.
Waiting can make you question everything.
When you don’t see immediate results, it’s easy to assume nothing is happening.
But something may be happening beneath the surface.
You may be learning something.
Growing.
Healing.
Building relationships.
Developing skills.
Becoming more resilient.
Getting clearer about what you actually want.
The problem is that preparation rarely feels as exciting as arrival.
We want the breakthrough.
We want the open door.
We want the answer.
We want the next chapter.
But sometimes the most important work happens before any of those things become visible.
My Own Life Has Been Full of Waiting
After high school, I went to college.
Honestly, I didn’t really know there were other options at the time.
College was simply what you did, so that’s what I did.
I remember waiting for that feeling of knowing what I was supposed to do with my life.
A lot of my friends seemed clearer than I was.
Even my now husband seemed to know what he wanted to do and confidently chose a direction that aligned with it.
Me?
Not so much.
I somewhat randomly chose a degree path involving theology and public speaking.
Looking back now, that’s actually kind of hilarious considering where my life eventually went.
Maybe it wasn’t so random after all.
About a year into college, I knew that path wasn’t for me.
So I dropped out and pursued something else that had started revealing itself only a few months after I began college.
Yoga.
Teaching.
Movement.
Then came opening a yoga studio.
Eventually, a yoga school.
Business coaching.
Speaking coaching.
Traveling.
Speaking.
Building businesses.
Eventually closing the studio and school and entering an industry where I knew virtually no one.
Then came Mother Trucker Yoga.
Products.
Corporate wellness programs.
Writing.
More teaching.
More speaking.
More business.
And now I find myself circling back to movement, health, writing, business, communication, and teaching in ways I couldn’t possibly have predicted 20 years ago.
I Was Waiting the Entire Time
Here’s what’s fascinating to me.
I was waiting the entire time.
But I wasn’t sitting around doing nothing.
I was living.
Learning.
Building.
Growing.
Moving forward.
And waiting.
None of those things ever completely felt like “it.”
They felt right.
They felt important.
They felt like the next step.
But I always had this strange internal knowing that there was more.
For someone else, opening the yoga studio might have been the dream.
Becoming a coach might have been the destination.
Building a company might have been the thing.
For me, each one felt more like another piece of a puzzle.
I couldn’t see the picture yet.
But I knew the piece belonged somewhere.
The Pieces Don’t Always Make Sense Right Away
I graduated high school in 2002.
I opened my yoga studio in 2006.
It’s now 2026.
And after one of the more challenging and confusing seasons of my professional life, I’m beginning to watch pieces from more than two decades start clicking together like a puzzle I didn’t realize I had been building.
Movement.
Teaching.
Speaking.
Business.
Writing.
Health.
Coaching.
Entrepreneurship.
My own struggles.
My recovery.
The thousands of people I’ve taught.
The businesses that worked.
The ones that didn’t.
The doors that opened.
The doors that slammed shut.
Things I once thought were completely unrelated are starting to make sense together.
And that’s made me wonder:
What if waiting isn’t a hallway between where you are and where you’re supposed to be?
What if waiting is part of where you’re supposed to be?
What If You Don’t Need to Know Yet?
We’re obsessed with arriving.
We want to know what’s next.
We want a plan.
We want certainty.
We want to know that the work we’re doing today will lead directly to the outcome we’re hoping for tomorrow.
But maybe that’s not how life works.
Maybe we’re so focused on arriving that we miss what is being built while we wait.
Active waiting isn’t passive.
It’s continuing to show up.
Continuing to learn.
Taking care of your body.
Strengthening your relationships.
Making the call.
Writing the thing.
Pursuing the opportunity that feels right.
Developing the gifts you’ve been given.
Paying attention.
Praying.
Listening.
And maybe most importantly, learning to stop demanding that every single thing you do immediately explain how it fits into the final picture.
There Is Power in Not Knowing
Sometimes we know exactly what needs to be done, and it’s simply hard.
But other times, what makes a difficult season even harder is the uncertainty.
We don’t know how long it’s going to last.
We don’t know which decision is right.
We don’t know whether the opportunity is coming back.
We don’t know why the relationship changed.
We don’t know if the business will work.
We don’t know what God is doing.
And we don’t particularly like not knowing.
So we try to manufacture certainty.
We force things.
We quit.
We jump into something else.
We numb ourselves.
We scroll.
We overthink.
We ask 17 people what they think and somehow end up even more confused than when we started.
Anything to make the discomfort of not knowing disappear.
But what if you don’t need to know yet?
What if your job today isn’t to understand the entire plan?
What if your job is simply to identify the next right step and take it?
That’s very different from doing nothing.
And it’s very different from forcing something that isn’t ready.
Your Detours May Actually Be Preparation
Twenty-four years later, I’m beginning to understand that many of the things I once thought were detours were actually preparation.
I needed those rooms.
I needed those businesses.
I needed those failures and relationships and stages.
I needed the thousands of hours of teaching.
I even needed some of the waiting.
Because I couldn’t have known in 2002 what I know today.
And maybe I wasn’t supposed to.
That’s something worth remembering when you’re in a season that doesn’t make sense.
You don’t have to understand the entire path to take the next step.
You don’t have to know exactly where something is leading to know that it’s worth pursuing.
And you don’t have to label something a failure simply because it hasn’t become what you expected yet.
How to Practice Active Waiting
If you’re in a waiting season right now, ask yourself a few simple questions.
What Can I Learn?
Is there something this season is teaching you?
Maybe it’s patience.
Maybe it’s boundaries.
Maybe it’s communication.
Maybe it’s leadership.
Maybe it’s self-trust.
Pay attention to the lessons.
What Can I Build?
Waiting doesn’t mean putting your life on hold.
Is there a skill you can develop?
A relationship you can strengthen?
A project you can begin?
A habit you can improve?
Build what you can while you wait.
What Can I Take Care Of?
Your body still needs you.
Your relationships still need attention.
Your mind needs rest.
Your spiritual life may need space.
Taking care of yourself isn’t something you do after the next chapter begins.
It’s part of preparing for it.
What Am I Trying to Force?
This might be the hardest question.
Are you trying to make something happen simply because you’re uncomfortable with waiting?
Sometimes the next right step is action.
Sometimes it’s surrender.
Learning the difference is part of the work.
Do the Work Without Demanding the Timeline
That’s the balance I’m learning.
Do the work without demanding the timeline.
Move forward without forcing the outcome.
Be still without becoming stagnant.
Let go without giving up.
There is freedom in that.
You can participate fully in your life without trying to control every detail of how it unfolds.
You can keep moving while accepting that you don’t know exactly where you’re going.
You can trust that something may be developing even when you can’t see it yet.
And maybe that’s faith too.
Maybe even more so.
Maybe You’re Not Stuck
If you’re waiting right now, don’t confuse waiting with stopping your life.
Live.
Move.
Learn.
Build.
Pray.
Take care of yourself.
Follow the things that feel like the right next step, even if you can’t explain exactly where they’re taking you.
And when there truly isn’t a next move to make, have enough faith to stop forcing one.
The pieces you’re collecting today may not reveal the picture they’re creating until years from now.
I’m living proof of that.
Maybe the goal was never to get out of the waiting room as quickly as possible.
Maybe the goal was to live fully while you were there.
To become the person you needed to become so that when the next door finally opened, you were actually ready to walk through it.
And maybe that’s why, after all these years, I’m finally beginning to look at some of the things I’ve been waiting for and think:
Oh. Now I understand why it couldn’t have happened then.
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