I’ve always loved this Marianne Williamson quote:

Our deepest fear is not that we’re inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond all measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.

Powerful beyond all measure — just imagine. Imagine having the power to step forward and change anything we want to change; to have a point of view, stand up firmly for it, and be strong. Sounds simple. And yet even the most confident among us give away that power from time to time. It’s not because we’re weak or because our courage fails us; it’s because we don’t know how strong we really are. Even if we get a glimmer of our true grit, we back off. “Whoa, girl!” we say. “Let’s not get carried away.”

And so we wait. We put our power on hold while we wait for the signal or the invitation or the exact right moment or until the planets are aligned before we take that step to change our lives or our world. (I’m not kidding. I know a woman who won’t move forward with her life at all if Mercury is in retrograde!) A lot of us are waiting until the children are older. A woman I coached years ago who wanted to advance her career said, “I know, Gail. I should make my move pretty soon. But you know, I’m just waiting for my son to get a little older.”

“How old is he now?” I asked.

“He’ll be 30 on his next birthday. But I just want to be sure…” she trailed off.