By Dina Aldabbagh

Why won’t you move? For at what do you fret? 

Lighten your load, so that you can move. Just as a ship has a weight threshold that it can carry so that it can still float, so do you, too. You can’t carry everything, therefore you must be selective with the weight you choose to take on board. All those things you carry that make it feel heavy to move — the expectations, principles, the standards, the perspectives  — if they are impediments to motion, they need to be released. 

What we must recognize is that if something feels heavy, it needs to go. At least, temporarily. At least, until you can carry it and still move forward. You need to make sure you have enough energy to keep going. Moving forward is perhaps the single most prerequisite life skill we must have. If you cannot move forward, life stops. 

However, even if you move forward imperfectly or in the wrong direction, it’s still motion, and motion will always find a way to be of value in your life. But the only thing that can bring your life to a halt is if you stop moving forward altogether.

The Bible very wisely reports, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on” (NIV, Exodus 14:15). This comes just after Pharaoh released the enslaved Israelites, and Moses brought them out of Egypt into the desert. In terror, the Israelites cried out “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?”(NIV, Exodus 14:11). 

What was the Lord’s response to this complaint? To interpret it: “Move on. I got you out of Egypt, now you need to move.” Even the Lord is saying, in effect, “Even I, yes, I, am left powerless to help you if you do not move on.” You can have the entire world conspiring to help you, but if you do not make the choice to move forward, no one can do a thing. Dead weight is very hard to carry — no one’s going to drag you. 

In examination of the Bible, you can honestly see that above all theology, it is a philosophy book. Remove the religion, and the advice still stands to help you. There is a fundamental reason that I believe the Bible constantly tells us to release fear, worry, hesitation, negative thoughts, and the urge to look back at the old things: because these are the things that paralyze us, and make moving on impossible. 

Do you need to be perfect to live a life? No. Do you need to be moving? Yes. If we do not move on, nothing can happen. If we allow everything that hits us to stop us where we are — to make us pause indefinitely — our lives are that which are ultimately paused. Perfectionism seems like an attractive offer, because it suggests that you will only receive the best of the best, but it actually does the sneaky thing of making you hesitate.

Don’t deliberate too long. Again, to be thoughtful and considerate appears very attractive and moral, but not everything requires deliberation. Some things are actually just not that important. Think and see clearly. What really matters? What matters enough to waste your time on? When it’s worth it, it’s a good use of time. When not, it’s truly just a waste. 

All excessive deliberation is usually doing is pausing your motion. Sure, some things actually do require thoughtful consideration, but then once the decision is made, it should be carried out swiftly. Don’t rush, but do act decisively once you know. Once you are made to see the truth, the reality of things, and you understand enough of the picture to take the next step…TAKE IT. MOVE. 

Further, once something has already happened, and is done, move on. A brief reflection is typically sufficient; you don’t need to endlessly ruminate on the past, nor try to predict the future. What you need is to release it. 

No one is saying that you have to figure it all out at once. The deliberators will think so. They will think it’s all super important, and therefore heavy, and therefore each step should be taken like you’re walking on eggshells. Break the shells. Run. It’s not that important and your life is not that fragile — you just won’t ever know until you begin to move. You don’t yet have any evidence that it’s safe to move fast only because you’ve never done it, not because it’s unsafe. 

Perfectionism, deliberation — they say to you “Wait. Think about it more; don’t move yet; make the right decision so that we can get the best.” In reality, they could be saying, “I’m scared. I want the best, but I don’t know how this will turn out. I need to move slower because that feels safe for me.” Excessive hesitation is just as much of a curse as uncalculated recklessness. 

Both will destroy you. Both will steal your life. Please realize, your time is your life. This is life. Maybe you don’t have everything you want not because you can’t get it, but because you’re not moving enough. 

Own the rejections, let them guide you. Embrace the consequences of your choices, let yourself take them lightly. But do something. Your life will be a lot worse off from staying in place than it would be from making mistakes that teach you.

Here’s a bit of a paradox: being still is not the opposite of moving on. Actually, it’s often a type of forward motion. Moving on is really just letting go — releasing weight. Being still, in the way the Bible advises, is similar. It’s the decision to let go of control, to not force movement. Thus, to be still is a choice to move forward. This kind of being still is not what I’m advising against. 

What I’m cautioning you to be wary of is too much caution itself: paralysis. To choose to not make a move out of strategy for saving energy is different than to choose to not move because one is overwhelmed with decision-making. In the former, the “move” itself is restraint. It’s a decision to release the grip and let life guide you. In the latter, the “move” is the decision to not make a move — to stay in place. Typically, then, this doesn’t save any energy because a decision has still not been made and is still weighing on you. 

On the surface, these two types of stillnesses can appear the same, but with one, a decision has already been made to wait. It’s the stillness that comes after clarity. There’s nothing left to do; your system isn’t burning energy trying to solve anything. It’s actually at rest. This stillness isn’t the absence of movement; it’s just movement that doesn’t look like force. 

In the other type of stillness, it can look responsible, thoughtful, even wise. But internally, it’s unresolved, tense, and quietly draining. It feels more like: “I can’t move yet… I need to be sure… what if this is wrong…” The important distinction is that no real decision has been made. Therefore, the mind stays open, looping, trying to “finish” something that never closes. 

Regardless of the choice of stillness or active motion, a decision still needs to be made — and it should be to the end of making things lighter for you. If you never do anything, or you move too cautiously, you’re not gaining enough evidence to learn.

They say that many of the most intelligent people are the least successful, while many of lesser intelligence are extremely successful. This, they say, is due to the more intelligent people overthinking action, while those who don’t think so much actually just do. Ultimately that means that they learn faster — but from experience, not from theory. From real, lived moments. The people who act faster are the ones who increase their surface area for “luck” just because they’re simply opening themselves up to more opportunity. 

Maybe you could make the case that that intelligent person “deserves” it more, but perhaps actually the smartest person in the room isn’t the one with the highest IQ or amount of knowledge on a subject, but the one with the highest capacity for change. If you can handle motion, you can be given everything in life. Motion, in other words, is just change.

If something is not moving, it’s the same. If something is moving, it’s changing. In some way, it’s changing. If you can have a high tolerance for uncertainty, then you can take risks — then you can get something new in life. A high tolerance for change means you can adapt, and rise to the moment you’re in. The people who never move? They don’t rise — they stay stuck. 

It’s okay to let yourself be overwhelmed for a moment when you enter an environment that’s asking more out of you than ever before. This is the process for transformation. Change, ultimately, is born out of necessity. It’s a painful enough experience that very few would willingly do it unless they had to. Moving, then, is a sort of trigger for change. In each new environment, you’re being asked to grow. To adapt, actually, but adaptation is growth. 

How do muscles get stronger? They tear — and then they repair. And in that reparation, they adapt to the new stimulus. You are no different. You must move first, be stressed out a little, and then adapt. But you will adapt. While the movement may at first seem overwhelming, it’s causing the necessary growth you need to be able to carry more. 

There are quicksands all around you, trying to suck you down and convince you to be scared — trying to get you to stop moving. These are just voices, like chained up dogs barking. They can’t actually hurt you, unless you listen. If you take their screams like a directive — if you consider it a genuine threat — you let an invisible thing stop you from moving on. 

Those who can stay calm in the midst of a storm — i.e. loud, overwhelming environments that could even convince you that you’re “unsafe” — are the ones who can move on. For moving on isn’t a reward you get from figuring it all out, it’s the prerequisite to figuring it all out. 

Fear, worry, anxiety, perfectionism, negative consequences, and perceived judgement are all just screams that can convince you that taking another step is somehow unsafe. It’s not. You just don’t have enough evidence built up yet to know that you can feel these things and still end up totally fine. A lack of lived evidence leads you to try to think up every possible outcome and get stuck in analysis. You never actually move, you just think. Therefore, thoughtful calculation that leads to a swift decision is not the problem, but rather indecision disguised as wisdom is.

It’s really just fear trying to achieve certainty. This fear tries to consider all angles, take its time, and make the right decision — but it’s actually just putting off the actual making of a decision. As such, it easily convinces you that it’s being “wise,” “safe,” even “virtuous,” but it’s actually complicating things. 

Real wisdom simplifies. It doesn’t circle. It sees clearly. It decides. It says, “It’s this. I’m going.” Indecision sounds like: “Well… it could be this, but also that, and if you consider this angle…” One closes the loop while the other keeps it open. Wisdom is using knowledge to inform action — and save energy — not using knowledge to keep thinking. 

If indecision could speak honestly, it’d say “I’m afraid to choose wrong, to lose an option, and to feel regret.” Instead, it says to you, “I’m wisely taking my time. I’m not being rash.” The result? Paralysis — you, positioned perfectly in the place the world left you. 

Unfortunately, what seems “safe” is actually risking what you really want out of life. You may think you’re being cautious, but in reality you could be missing out on what’s actually for you, and draining your energy in the meantime. In the beginning, you never actually know how something will turn out. All you can really do from the vantage point you have is consider the possible consequences, the potential payoffs, and run a profit-loss analysis. If the worst still happened based on the current circumstances, is the pay-off worth it? 

Oftentimes, yes, it is. And more often, the worst never, ever happens. Most of our fears never leave our imaginations. Moving on doesn’t require so much out of you as simply being willing to face potential consequences. “Yes, I know this thing is possible, but I’m willing to face it — and I also know it’s probably not permanent.” If you’re not afraid of the consequences or of facing difficult feelings, you can face what’s true and move towards what matters.

Many people structure their lives around avoiding emotional disruption. Nearly all of the time — at least in most day-to-day situations us normies face in life — the only real consequence is a potential emotional reaction. My question to you the next you’re afraid to move is: For at what do you fret? 

What’s the real outcome you’re afraid will happen if you do that thing? If you’re honest, it’s probably as simple as feeling an emotion. That’s nothing to be ashamed about, but it is important to recognize so you can truly ask yourself, “Is maybe facing a negative emotion worth losing out on something that I really want?”

My thought is: no, it’s not. When something matters, you move towards it. When something is hurting you, you move away from it. Regardless, staying completely still or moving in ultra slow-motion is rarely the answer. 

Move like your life depends on it, because it does. Move, even if it’s slow, but with conviction. Don’t analyze every step to the point of stagnation. Just move. Don’t think you needed more time or information to begin pursuing a path. Just make the best choice you can with what you know. You don’t need to wait until you know everything, just until you know enough to take the next step. 

In order to move, maybe the only truth you need to really accept is that no matter what, there will be consequences. Nothing is perfect. Everything is a trade-off. But decision has this beautifully relieving and calm finality that says, “This is sufficient. I’ll adjust if needed.” 

You must come to terms with the costs of your decision. Typically, indecision is just the fear of consequence — but there are two important notes to end on:

1. Negative consequences don’t hurt as much as you predict
2. Indecision has its own negative consequences.

At the end of the day, you will feel the consequences of whatever decision you make. At least, let the decision be yours. Let it be something you can stand behind. And really?…Let it be something you can live with.